Earlier this year, Joshua Browder, CEO of AI startup DoNotPay, attempted to bring a robot lawyer into a California courtroom, despite almost certainly knowing that it was illegal in almost all 50 states to bring automated assistance like this into a courtroom.<\/p>\n

DoNotPay bills itself as the \u201cworld\u2019s first robot lawyer\u201d whose goal is to \u201clevel the playing field and make legal information and self-help accessible to everyone.\u201d It helps to serve society\u2019s lower-income segment to lower medical bills, appeal bank fees, and dispute credit reports. It claims to have helped more than 160,000 people successfully contest parking tickets in London and New York.<\/p>\n

It was denied entry to the California courthouse, however, because \u201cunder current rules in every state except Utah, nobody except a bar-licensed lawyer is allowed to give any kind of legal help,\u201d Gillian Hadfield, professor of law and director of the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society at the University of Toronto, tells Magazine.<\/p>\n

Still, in the age of ChatGPT and other stunning artificial intelligence devices, Browder\u2019s attempt could be a foretaste of the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe DoNotPay effort is a sign of what is to come,\u201d Andrew Perlman, dean and professor of law at Suffolk University Law School, tells Magazine. \u201cCertain legal services, including many routine legal matters, can and will be delivered through automated tools. In fact, it is already happening at the consumer level in numerous ways, such as via LegalZoom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such help is urgently needed in the view of many. In the U.S., low-income Americans \u201cdo not receive any or enough legal help for 92% of their civil legal problems,\u201d according to a Legal Services Corporation study (2022). Almost half surveyed don\u2019t seek help because of high legal costs, and more than half (53%) \u201cdoubt their ability to find a lawyer they could afford if they needed one,\u201d according to the LSC survey.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis access-to-justice gap is a serious problem, and automated tools can be an important part of the solution,\u201d comments Perlman.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Can AI democratize legal services?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
It may only be a matter of time before AI reaches the courtroom. If so, it could help to wring human bias out of the legal system. \u201cIn a legal setting, AI will usher in a new, fairer form of digital justice whereby human emotion, bias and error will become a thing of the past,\u201d says British AI expert Terence Mauri, author and founder of the Hack Future Lab.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Will it advance the day when legal services are truly democratized? \u201cAbsolutely,\u201d says Hadfield. \u201cThis is the most exciting thing about AI now.\u201d Not only can it reduce the cost of legal services in the corporate sector \u2014 \u201cand I think that\u2019s coming \u2014 \u201cbut the huge payoff will be in addressing the complete crisis we face in access to justice.\u201d<\/p>\n
But more work may still be needed before AI becomes common in the courthouse. The law does not have much tolerance for technical errors. The stakes are simply too high. \u201cI\u2019ve used ChatGPT, and it often summarizes the law correctly. But sometimes, it makes mistakes,\u201d John McGinnis, a law professor at Northwestern University told USA Today. \u201cAnd (that\u2019s) not a surprise. It\u2019ll get better. But at the moment, I think going into the courtroom was something of a bridge too far.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hadfield herself has been working in Utah and elsewhere to establish regimes for licensing providers other than lawyers to provide some legal services. Consumer access to legal services is necessary for the interests of fairness and is increasingly doable, given the rapid evolution of technology. As Hadfield explains to Magazine:<\/p>\n
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\u201cI don\u2019t think a fully unregulated\/unvetted DoNotPay should be out there, but there should be an easy way to license it against the standard: \u2018Does this make the user better off than they are now?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Most people engaging with the law today \u2014 including the people DoNotPay is aiming to help \u2014 \u201cget zero legal assistance, so that bar may not be high,\u201d adds Hadfield.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A global need<\/strong><\/h2>\n
AI\u2019s promise of delivering accessible, reasonably priced legal services could soon gain traction beyond the United States, too. Indeed, AI-driven solutions may be even more welcome in the developing world. A Boston Consulting Group study on \u201cThe Use of AI in Government,\u201d for example, found that people in less developed economies \u201cwhere perceived levels of corruption are higher also tended to be more supportive of the use of AI.\u201d Those surveyed in India, China and Indonesia indicated the strongest support for government applications of AI, while those in Switzerland, Estonia and Austria offered the weakest support.<\/p>\n
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