"The World's First Robot Lawyer Has Been Practicing Law Without a License —"

"doing a pretty poor job of it to boot, according to a putative class action filed Tuesday," reports Courthouse News Service.

From its story:

Defendant DoNotPay Inc. began as an app to fight parking tickets and in the eight years since it began has morphed into an online legal service which claims to be able to handle a slew of legal services for its clients ranging from finding hidden money and filing lawsuits to annulling marriages and beating bureaucracy, all without having to hire a lawyer.

The app now offers divorce settlement agreements, defamation demand letters, restraining orders, and U.S. Securities and Exchange complaints in addition to dozens of other legal services. "The DoNotPay app is the home of the world's first robot lawyer," the company claims on its website. "Fight corporations, beat bureaucracy and sue anyone at the press of a button."

But the plaintiffs in Tuesday's lawsuit have their doubts….

You can read the Complaint; here's DoNotPay's initial response (though of course it will respond in more detail in the litigation):

"The named plaintiff has submitted dozens of cases and seen significant success with our products," the company said. "The case is being filed by a lawyer that has personally made hundreds of millions from class actions, so it's not surprising that he would accuse an AI of 'unauthorized practice of law.' Once we respond in court, this will be cleared up."

Thanks to Media Law Resource Center's MediaLawDaily for the pointer.