New app pegged as robot lawyer helps consumers get legal advice, fight traffic fines and stop robocalls

HOUSTON – “I was really angry, upset. I got a $200 ticket for having the wrong kind of sticker on my car. I couldn’t believe it. Opening that envelope and just seeing it, I about had a heart attack,” said Chris Lu.

Lu works for an investment company so he knows a few things about money and he was furious he was going to shell out $200 for a ticket he thought was ridiculous.

As he wrote out that check, he decided this was it. This was the last time he was going to be hurt by big government bureaucracy or big business. He was going to start fighting back.

But how?

That’s when Chris discovered a brand new app called DoNotPay.com, billed as the world’s first robot lawyer.

For $3 a month, the app aims to give you pocket legal aid and will help you fight back against a whole host of people who wronged you.

Joshua Browder is the computer coder who created DoNotPay when he was still in college.

“We have over a hundred different features that help people fight back against corporations and governments that rip you off”, Browder said.

For example, DoNotPay offers users the Free Trial Credit Card.

Think about all the free trials that some companies offer you.

They do that to drive business but also in hopes that you will forget about the free trial period and the company can charge you month after month for the service you signed up for.

DoNotPay says it has come up with a special credit card to help with that.

“People forget to cancel free trials. They get hooked-in with these payment details and then they get charged every month. So we’ve built a credit card that’s not tied to you at all and you can use it for any free trial program and then we will just cancel it for you… so you don’t wind up paying anything and you can’t be tricked into paying month after month,” Browder said.

Another huge problem for all of us is robocalls.

Americans around the country are hit with over 167,000,000 of them every day.

Many don’t know that the recently passed Telephone Consumer Protection Act makes it possible for you to force robocall companies to pay you up to $500 for every robocall they make to your phone.

The problem is finding these companies and demanding they pay you.

DoNotPay claims to contact these companies and then send them demand letters forcing these companies to pay you $500.

How does it work?

“So when you get the call from the cruise ship company or the robocall company or whatever, they are going to ask you for your credit card. So you say ‘Okay I’ll give you my credit card.’ But then, you give them our free trial credit card which is not tied to you in any way. The company runs that card and then we have them. They have to electronically give us a lot of information about them — their name, address, other critical information — in order to run that credit card and that’s when we have them. Then we can send them a demand letter, demanding they pay you that $500,” Browder said.

Using it’s robot-lawyer technology, DoNotPay says it can help you do a number of other things.

  • Help you fight parking and traffic tickets
  • Help you fight your bank over excessive banking fees
  • Help you get an appointment at the DMV or TSA
  • Help you sue your landlord in small claims court
  • Wait on hold for you, when you call customer service or agency’s that put you on forever hold

Those are just a few of the features that Joshua Browder says he hopes to help you with through DoNotPay.

As for Lu, who joined DoNotPay to fight parking tickets and traffic tickets, he says he now feels a lot more powerful.

“I guess in the end, DoNotPay empowers me to solve problems," Lu said.

You can download DoNotPay from the Apple App store here.


About the Author:

Emmy-winning investigative reporter, insanely competitive tennis player, skier, weightlifter, crazy rock & roll drummer (John Bonham is my hero). Husband to Veronica and loving cat father to Bella and Meemo.