The startup behind the “world’s first robot lawyer,” DoNotPay, is gearing up for one of its first big court battles. And this time it probably can’t just back out of the case, as DoNotPay is the defendant. The company is facing a class action lawsuit over allegations that it misled customers and misrepresented its product.
In the complaint (embedded below) filed March 3 in a San Francisco court and published Thursday, the plaintiff’s legal team claims that DoNotPay’s description of itself as the “world’s first robot lawyer” is incorrect and unlawful. Further it alleges that the company’s self-billing and lofty promises led its customers to believe they were receiving high quality legal advice and documents when they weren’t.
“Unfortunately for its customers, DoNotPay is not actually a robot, a lawyer, nor a law firm. DoNotPay does not have a law degree, is not barred in any jurisdiction, and is not supervised by any lawyer,” the suit reads. “DoNotPay is merely a website with a repository of—unfortunately, substandard—legal documents that at best fills in a legal adlib based on information input by customers,” it adds. The legal filing goes on to accuse the company of violating California code by “practicing law without a license.”
Among other things, the suit cites a DoNotPay customer review in which someone reportedly tried to use the service to dispute two parking tickets and ended up paying more money because the company didn’t respond to a summons. After trying to...
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