DoNotPay had started off as an app for contesting parking tickets, but has since expanded to include features that help users with many different types of legal issues, ranging from consumer protection to immigration rights and other social issues. The "robot lawyer" makes use of automation to provide free legal consultation for the public. The application is supported by IBM's Watson computer. As of October 2018, the app only allows for appealing small claims with a maximum limit of $25,000, but Browder plans to expand into more legal areas and add many more features in the near future. Browder claims that one of his major goals for DoNotPay is to eventually allow all members of society to have access to the same levels of legal representation. The app also allows users to file small claims with utility providers and other companies.
History
In 2015, DoNotPay was founded by Browder when he was 17 years old. Originally, Browder had created an app that allowed users in the United Kingdom to protest their parking tickets. Coverage for DoNotPay was then subsequently expanded to the United States, covering all 50 states. Immediately after its launch, Browder's DoNotPay application quickly became widely used by thousands of users and gained significant international media coverage. In 2016, The Guardian reported that the chatbot had successfully contested more than 250,000 parking tickets in London and New York and won 160,000 of them, all free of charge, claiming a success rate of over 60 percent. In 2017, Browder launched 1,000 more bots to help with filling out transaction legal forms in the US and UK. DoNotPay has also expanded to include features that help users obtain refunds on flight tickets and hotel bookings, cancel free trials, sue people, and even offer legal services relating to social issues such as asylum applications and housing for the homeless. In 2018, DoNotPay acquired Visabot, a chatbot that helps provide automated services to users seeking to obtain U.S. visas and green cards. Around the same time, DoNotPay also launched a service that helped users seek claims from Equifax during the aftermath of its security breach, a feature that has since been integrated into the DoNotPay app. As of 2019, DoNotPay provides specialized advice for appealing parking tickets in locations such as New York City, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Chicago, Milwaukee, Sacramento, and UCSD. In 2019, the DoNotPay application has even advised students at Stanford University, Browder's alma mater, to waive their Student Activities Fees. More recently, DoNotPay launched Free Trial Card, which gives users a virtual credit card number that can be used to sign up for free online trials such as Netflix and Spotify. As soon as the free trial period ends, the card automatically declines any charges, thus ending free trials without having to give up the cardholder's personal payment information.
Funding
In 2019, Browder obtained $4.6 million in funding from Silicon Valley investors such as Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund, who were early funders of Facebook.
