Robot lawyer offering legal assistance to Equifax hack victims is UK bound

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By Thomas Connelly on

London-born student sets sights on credit report giant

A robot lawyer offering free legal assistance to those affected by the Equifax data breach is bound for the UK, according to its 20-year-old creator.

Joshua Browder — a London-born computer science student at Stanford University, California — is the brains behind an artificial intelligence (AI) system called DoNotPay. Launched in 2016, the bot helps users with the likes of parking ticket appeals and travel delay compensation.

Computer guru Browder — who recently moved into the house Mark Zuckerberg used to rent — has helped defeat around 375,000 parking tickets in less than two years. Now, he’s moving on to potentially more lucrative claims.

Earlier this month, credit report giant Equifax revealed that around 143 million US customers may have had their personal information stolen by cyber criminals. Recent reports suggest that up to 44 million British consumers’ details may have also been compromised.

In an attempt to lend a helping hand, Browder has adapted his pioneering parking ticket programme to help victims sue Equifax without involving a lawyer.

Modifications to his DoNotPay system will help users produce the paperwork to bring claims and direct users to the court where they need to file it. Claimants can “automatically sue” Equifax for, for example, $5,000 (£3,800) in New York or $10,000 (£7,500) in California.

For those impacted outside of the States, Browder has now revealed his Equifax litigation bot will be coming to UK shores very soon. Keen to help all those affected by the breach, he told Legal Cheek:

I am looking to apply the same model to helping consumers fight the company [Equifax] in the UK. The hack unfortunately knew no borders, so neither will DoNotPay.

In a statement released last week, Equifax chairman and CEO Richard Smith said:

We pride ourselves on being a leader in managing and protecting data, and we are conducting a thorough review of our overall security operations.

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