The future is now–there’s a robot lawyer that can get you out of parking tickets in the United Kingdom…sort of. Joshua Browder, 19, who is certainly way more impressive than I was at the same age, made a “robot lawyer” that helps people appeal parking tickets. Since the site, donotpay.co.uk launched late in 2015, it has appealed more than $3 million in parking tickets, and it may soon make its way across the pond to the United States.

Browder is now a freshman at Stanford University, and he launched donotpay.co.uk (aka the robot lawyer) last year. It’s still in beta mode right now, but the full version will go live this spring.

The concept is pretty simple–if you need to appeal a parking ticket you go to the site and it takes you step-by-step through the process. According to Business Insider:

Once you sign in, a chat screen pops up. To learn about your case, the bot asks questions like ‘Were you the one driving?’ and ‘Was it hard to understand the parking signs?’ It then spits out an appeal letter, which you mail to the court. If the robot is completely confused, it tells you how to contact Browder directly.

The robot lawyer is also being taught how to help people navigate certain insurance claims and deal with delayed or cancelled flights.

So, the robot lawyer isn’t a lawyer exactly, but rather a tool that can automize tasks that were traditionally done by a lawyer–and often done expensively. Of course, the robot lawyer cannot dispense subjective legal advice, because that is something that only humans can legally do.

Robot lawyer is, however, learning:

Browder programmed his robot based on a conversation algorithm. It uses keywords, pronouns, and word order to understand the user’s issue. He says that the more people use the robot, the more intelligent it becomes. Its algorithm can quickly analyze large amounts of data while improving itself in the process.

Browder has big plans for this kind of tech–he’s starting to program in New York City laws, and he’s working on a version that will help Syrian refugees apply for asylum. Browder’s tech, whether or not you want to call it a “robot lawyer,” is pretty cool, and it’s certainly a cost and time-saving measure. I don’t think we’ll see robots arguing in a courtroom anytime soon, but we may all have an easier time when we get into a scuffle with a broken parking meter.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Get a Parking Ticket? A New “Robot Lawyer” May Soon Be Able to Help appeared first on Law Street.

If you ever wondered if spelling, grammar, and punctuation were really important, the answer is yes. Not only will using them make you look halfway literate, it will make law enforcing just that much easier.

You have to be a smooth talker in order to talk your way out of paying a parking ticket on a grammar-cality. Andrea Cammelleri, then, must be one smooth talker.

It’s a Comma Mistake

In Ohio, there are certain types of things that cannot be parked for more than 24 hours in certain spots. The village thought that Cammelleri’s pickup truck was one of those things that could not be parked where she chose. That is why they so happily provided her with a ticket when she failed to follow the whole ‘don’t park here for more than 24 hours’ law that they thought was so clear.

They were apparently wrong–both in that Cammelleri’s truck was not one of the vehicles that made the don’t park here list, and because the law was not as clear as they had assumed.

The reason they thought that Cammelleri was illegally parked was because a pickup truck is a motor vehicle and the way the village reads the law in question, motor vehicles were included in the list of covered things. However, they were missing one vital piece of information to make that assumption true: a comma.

If you have ever gotten into a debate about commas (this is a real thing that happens all the time when you are a writer and/or editor), then you will be happy to know that the debate has finally found its way to court with a definitive, legal answer.

What the law actually says is that motor vehicle campers could not park in the spot for that long. What exactly is a motor vehicle camper? A fancy term for RV? Or just a long way to say camper?

Cammelleri said that she wasn’t sure what it was, but she knew here truck wasn’t one. Therefore that ticket she got for illegally parking should be tossed.

The village had a different argument. Come on, they told the court. It’s pretty obvious we meant to say “motor vehicle, camper” and not “motor vehicle camper.” This woman’s just trying to weasel out of paying up. Let’s just fine her, and use the money to fix the law. (Okay. That last part was completely editorialized.)

Who did the court side with? If you read the headline, and I am assuming you must have in order to have gotten here, then you already know the answer. The court sided with Cammelleri.

Why? They ruled that while contextually the law might be understandable, technically it could be read both ways. If they want the court to interpret the law the way the village does, then they better go change it to be both contextually and technically right. Otherwise, they should start saving their parking tickets for illegally parked motor vehicle campers, whatever those might be.

Proofread or Lose Money

What can you learn from the forgotten comma? If you want to get paid, you better proofread. Otherwise, you miss losing more money than a Macy’s mispriced mailer.

Ashley Shaw

Ashley Shaw is an Alabama native and current New Jersey resident. A graduate of both Kennesaw State University and Thomas Goode Jones School of Law, she spends her free time reading, writing, boxing, horseback riding, playing trivia, flying helicopters, playing sports, and a whole lot else. So maybe she has too much spare time. Contact Ashley at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Thank the Grammar Police For This Dismissed Parking Ticket appeared first on Law Street.