The achievements of ‘robot lawyer’ platform DoNotPay over the last 12 months have been a source of fascination – and perhaps trepidation – for anyone with a keen eye on the rise of automation in legal services. The brainchild of 19-year-old Stanford University whiz kid Joshua Browder, DoNotPay is a free-of-charge automated platform that offers legal support and guidance to individuals with parking tickets that they either cannot or do not want to pay. The automated, chat-based platform has achieved an impressive 64 per cent success rate since its launch, overturning around 160,000 tickets to June this year and saving the general public in London and New York around US$4m in fines.

Free-of-charge housing applications

With DoNotPay moving from strength to strength, Mr Browder is now adapting the platform to assist individuals facing precarious housing situations or homelessness. Having previously speculated on a variety of potential adaptations for the platform – including an Arabic-speaking remake to assist Syrian asylum seekers lodge refugee claims – Mr Browder settled on tackling housing issues after receiving numerous inquiries from individuals facing evictions and homelessness, particularly in the UK. By using the online platform, clients will be able to generate applications designed to maximise their chances of securing housing without paying a cent in legal fees.

Sources: The Washington Post; Australasian Lawyer