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Creator of the ‘world’s first robot lawyer’ builds a program to help refugees claim asylum

Finchley Synagogue member who is now studying computer science at Stanford creates system to automate asylum applications

March 7, 2017 17:05
Joshua revisiting his old primary school
1 min read

Two years ago, Finchley teenager Joshua Browder created a website called donotpay.co.uk. The site, which simplified the process of contesting parking tickets, has a huge hit with motorists and garnered acres of press coverage – including an article in the JC.

Joshua went on to modify the core code to cover various other legal issues, such as helping vulnerable people apply for emergency housing, and dealing with PPI claims.

Now Joshua’s coding skill is back in the news. He has devised an automated ‘chatbot’ which uses Facebook’s messaging system to talk refugees who are arriving  in the US and Canada  through the process of filling in an immigration application. For UK arrivals, it helps them apply for asylum support.