DoNotPay is an American company specializing in online legal services and

chatbots A chatbot (originally chatterbot) is a software application or web interface designed to have textual or spoken conversations. Modern chatbots are typically online and use generative artificial intelligence systems that are capable of main ...

. The product provides a " robot lawyer" service that claims to make use of

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

to contest

parking tickets A parking violation is the act of parking a motor vehicle in a restricted place or in an unauthorized manner. It is against the law virtually everywhere to park a vehicle in the middle of a highway or road; parking on one or both sides of a roa ...

and provide various other legal services, with a subscription cost of $36 for three months.

History and services

DoNotPay was founded in 2015 by Joshua Browder. DoNotPay started off as an app for contesting

parking ticket A parking violation is the act of parking a motor vehicle in a restricted place or in an unauthorized manner. It is against the law virtually everywhere to park a vehicle in the middle of a highway or road; parking on one or both sides of a roa ...

s. It sells services which generate documents on legal issues ranging from consumer protection to immigration rights; it states that these are generated via automation and AI. The company claims its application is supported by the

IBM Watson IBM Watson is a computer system capable of answering questions posed in natural language. It was developed as a part of IBM's DeepQA project by a research team, led by principal investigator David Ferrucci. Watson was named after IBM's fou ...

AI. It is currently available in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

(in all 50 states). DoNotPay states that its services help customers seek refunds on flight tickets and hotel bookings, cancel free trials, sue people, apply for

asylum Asylum may refer to: Types of asylum * Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome * Benevolent asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute * Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea * ...

or homeless housing, seek claims from

Equifax Equifax Inc. is an American multinational consumer credit reporting agency headquartered in Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia and is one of the three largest consumer credit reporting agency, consumer credit reporting agencies, along with Experian and T ...

during the aftermath of its security breach, and obtain U.S. visas and green cards. DoNotPay offers a ''Free Trial Card'' feature which gives users a virtual credit card number that can be used to sign up for free online trials (such as

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

and

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

). As soon as the free trial period ends, the card automatically declines any charges. DoNotPay also claims that its services allow users to automatically apply for refunds, cancel subscriptions, fight spam in people's inboxes, combat volatile airline prices, and file damage claims with city offices. In 2021, DoNotPay raised $10 million from investors, including Andreesen Horowitz,

Lux Capital Lux Capital is a venture capital firm based in New York City. It was founded in 2000, and focuses on investments in emerging technologies. History Lux Capital was founded in 2000 by Peter Hébert, Robert Paull and Josh Wolfe. In April 2011, for ...

, Tribe Capital, and others, reaching a valuation of $210 million. In January 2024, DoNotPay began paying

dividend A dividend is a distribution of profits by a corporation to its shareholders, after which the stock exchange decreases the price of the stock by the dividend to remove volatility. The market has no control over the stock price on open on the ex ...

s to its investors.

Reception

In 2016, Joshua Browder, the company's founder, told ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' that the chatbot had contested more than 250,000 parking tickets in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

and won 160,000 of them, although the newspaper did not appear to verify the claim. DoNotPay's effectiveness and marketing have been subject to praise and criticism. In September 2024, the company received a $193,000 fine from the

Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) United States antitrust law, antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. It ...

(FTC) for falsely advertising the capabilities of some of its

(AI) services. The FTC also stated that the company never tested the legal accuracy of the chatbot's answers. Browder's technology has received mixed reviews. For example, a blog post from ''The Guardian'' noted that it "just drafted an impressive notice under the Data Protection Act 1998 not to use my personal information for direct marketing." Similarly, a writer with ''The American Lawyer'' noted that, "one of DoNotPay's chatbots helped me draft a strong, well-cited and appropriately toned letter requesting extended maternity leave." However, ''

Legal Cheek Legal Cheek is a British legal news website. It also has a careers section featuring research about law firms and barrister chambers and a large following on social media. History Founded by former ''The Guardian, Guardian'' journalist Alex Aldr ...

'' tested the service in 2016 with "fairly basic legal questions" and noted that it failed to answer most of them. Above the Law noted that the service may "be too good to be true" due to errors in the legal advice provided, noting that when dealing with "things as important as securing immigration status, which is one of the services DoNotPay promotes, mistakes can ruin lives." Above the Law ultimately recommended the service for "clear-cut issues like parking tickets or non-critical matters," while cautioning against its use for legal issues with higher stakes. In January 2023, Browder claimed that the organization would attempt to use DoNotPay live in court, but was forced to halt after being warned about the unlicensed practice of law. ''

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

'' wrote that "some observers" have had "mixed to shoddy results attempting to use its basic features", and noted that Browder, the company's founder, is known for attention-seeking stunts.

Legal action

2023 class-action lawsuits

In March 2023, the company faced two class-action lawsuits, one alleging that it "misled customers and misrepresented its product" and another that the company is practicing law without a license. The parties in the first lawsuit, "reached a settlement in principle" without exposing the details of the settlement. The second, practicing law without a license lawsuit, was ultimately dismissed with Chief District Judge Nancy Rosenstengel agreeing with DoNotPay, holding that the plaintiff law firm, MillerKing, had failed to establish standing because it had failed to allege that it has suffered any concrete injury.

2024 Federal Trade Commission fine

In September 2024, the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced an enforcement action against DoNotPay, alleging that the company "relied on artificial intelligence as a way to supercharge deceptive or unfair conduct that harms consumers .." For example, the company's advertising featured a quote supposedly from the ''Los Angeles Times'' which praised its services, but was actually from a high schooler's op-ed on the newspaper's "High School Insider" platform. The FTC also stated that the company never tested the quality of its legal services or hired attorneys to assess the accuracy of the chatbot's answers. In the proposed settlement, DoNotPay did not admit liability, but did agree to several penalties, including a fine of $193,000 and limitations on its future marketing claims.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://donotpay.com/ Applications of artificial intelligence 2015 introductions Legal software