[span style="font-weight: bold;" class="title"]Artificial Intelligence Cited for Unlicensed Practice of Law[/span]
[span class="mood"] [p class="MsoNormal"] A web-based "expert system" that helped users prepare bankruptcy filings for a fee made too many decisions to be considered a clerical tool, an appeals court said last week, ruling that the software was effectively practicing law without a license.[/p] [p class="MsoNormal"][o:p][/o:p]At issue were two websites maintained by entrepreneur Henry Ihejirika -- Ziinet.com and 700law.com -- which offered automated bankruptcy assistance.[/p][/span]When a bankruptcy trustee noticed errors in the forms, Reynoso blamed his computerized counsel, and Ihejirika joined the party in federal court. A bankruptcy judge ruled that Ihejirika had committed fraudulent, unfair, or deceptive conduct through his computer program, and had engaged in the unauthorized practice of law. [/p] [o:p][/o:p]Ihejirika was fined, enjoined from offering the same service in the future, and ordered to give up the fees he'd collected from nine customers in [st1:place w:st="on"][/st1:place]Northern California. He appealed, and last week the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling.
[/p] [a href="vny!://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/03/ai_cited_for_un.html"]vny!://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/03/ai_cited_for_un.html[/a]
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