Exorbitant legal fees, seemingly endless bureaucracy and an uncertain time investment mean that the decision to pursue legal action against a company or an individual is often fraught with hesitation.
But the founder of a legal-services app says his product now allows users to sue someone with their smartphones and claim awards from class-action lawsuits the same way they’d select a match on Tinder – with a quick “swipe right to sue.”
Since those new services launched Wednesday, the app, known as DoNotPay, has been downloaded more than 10,000 times, according to its founder, Joshua Browder, a 21-year-old senior at Stanford University who has been labeled the “Robin Hood of the internet.”
As an 18-year-old, Browder created a bot that helped people fight parking tickets in New York, London and Seattle, and he later created another bot to help people sue Equifax after a data breach left 143 million American consumers vulnerable to identity theft last year.
Browder is the son of businessman Bill Browder, a well-known critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Joshua Browder said the idea for his latest project – which works in all 50 states – came about after numerous people used DoNotPay to recoup as much as $11,000 from Equifax, even after the credit reporting agency appealed.
The updates allow users to sue a defendant for up to $25,000.
“I think people are really upset with how the legal system works,” Browder said. “Lawyers say this app isn’t necessary, but if your issue is below $10,000, no lawyer is going to help, and if they do they’re going to take 50 percent of what you make.”
“The most popular claims so far involve a merchant breaching a contract, such as United Airlines kicking someone off a flight,” Browder said. “There’s a large number of negligence suits, which is very interesting.”
How does it work?
Once opened, the app tells users they can sue anyone by pressing a button. The app then asks several questions about the nature of the filing, as well as users’ name and location, before asking them to fill in the amount they want to sue for.
After directing the claim to one of 15 separate legal lanes – such as an automobile accident or recovering personal property – the app provides users with the documents necessary for their suit, including a demand letter, county filing documents and even a strategic script to read in court. Users print out the documents and mail them to the relevant courthouse, setting the lawsuit in motion.
The app can also analyze a user’s receipts and email, and display all the class-action lawsuit settlements they’re eligible for, Browder said.
The service has provoked skepticism from lawyers in recent days, as well as a detailed defense.
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