{"id":759710,"date":"2026-09-04T12:42:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T12:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/759710\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T12:42:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T12:42:13","slug":"us-law-firm-accuses-uk-ai-software-firm-of-unwanted-contract-renewal-when-it-tried-to-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/759710\/","title":{"rendered":"US law firm accuses UK AI software firm of unwanted contract renewal when it tried to leave"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A US law firm is alleging that UK-based telecoms and software company ConnexAI sold it software and AI systems that failed to perform as the vendor claimed, and then unlawfully renewed its contract. ConnexAI has rejected the allegations. The dispute has involves two court cases, both of which are ongoing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>DK Law, a personal injury specialist based in California, alleged in a California court filing in April that ConnexAI promises \u201ccustomers a telephone system and AI software solution with functionality that does not exist or perform as represented.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It also alleges in the California <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.cacd.1018050\/gov.uscourts.cacd.1018050.1.0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">complaint<\/a> [PDF] that ConnexAI continued to send it invoices after it had told the vendor it was not renewing the year-long contract. <\/p>\n<p>The Register understands that ConnexAI believes the allegations to be frivolous and without merit. The vendor is branded ConnexAI, and registered as Connex One Limited in the UK and Connex One Inc in the US. <\/p>\n<p>The customer\u2019s claim followed a complaint that ConnexAI itself filed against the law firm the month before. In March 2026, in a New York court, ConnexAI filed a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theregister.com\/files\/2026\/09\/03\/original%20newyork%20STATE%20court%20complaint%20march%202026.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">complaint<\/a> [PDF] claiming its law firm customer had breached its contract by failing to pay invoices.<\/p>\n<p>Dan Richardson, ConnexAI general manager of North America, said in a statement: \u201cThere is a limit to what we can say while the matter is before the court. This claim is one part of a wider dispute which was initiated by Connex One Inc. The allegations now being made are rejected, and we would note that they were raised only after we issued proceedings which are active.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>In its complaint in the US District Court, Central District of California, Southern Division, DK Law alleges that ConnexAI sold it a telephone system and software on the basis that it would provide phone and voice services integrated with SMS and WhatsApp. ConnexAI also said its Athena software included \u201csentiment analysis, entity recognition, call transcripts, interaction clustering, training cues, and the ability to identify trends.\u201d Crucially, it also claimed the AI transcription worked in Spanish. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cConnexAI represented that the Athena AI software included AI Agent, AI Guru, AI Analytics, AI Voice, Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), all of which were represented to elevate customer interactions and enhance customer engagement and experience,\u201d the filing said. <\/p>\n<p>Using AI agents would offer around-the-clock availability, faster response times and personalized interactions, with a \u201chuman-like voice and text-based communication,\u201d the complaint argued. <\/p>\n<p>After less than a year using the software, DK Law alleged its experience of the software differed from the claims made by the vendor. <\/p>\n<p>According to the California filing, the telephone system frequently \u201cwent down\u201d, with calls often dropped or unanswered. Calls were also consistently misrouted, the customer alleges. <\/p>\n<p>The problems were reported to the vendor\u2019s support team. After the issue was escalated, the filing continues, ConnexAI sent US technical services engineers and the UK-based CTO to troubleshoot. \u201cSometimes the problem was resolved for the moment, only to recur shortly thereafter, with no permanent fix,\u201d the complaint\u00a0claimed. <\/p>\n<p>In addition, WhatsApp was unreliable and effectively unusable, DK Law alleges. <\/p>\n<p>While ConnexAI had claimed its ASR \u201cwould never miss a word,\u201d DK Law claimed \u201cthis too was false.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Per the filing, on checking recordings of calls, the customer claims to have discovered that only a few seconds of a conversation were actually recorded despite evidence of a longer call. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cConnex also represented in pre-contract discussions that its software was able to create real-time call transcripts of customer interactions conducted in English and Spanish. However, in reality, the Connex software only sometimes produced a transcript. When compared to the recorded conversations, DK Law found the transcripts of calls conducted in English to be inaccurate, and the Spanish language transcription did not work at all,\u201d the California law firm alleged. <\/p>\n<p>Given the performance, the filing claims, Brendan Haverlock, DK Law CTO, told the vendor that the contract would not be renewed after it expired in October 2025.<\/p>\n<p>But that was not the end of the matter. The complaint alleges ConnexAI continued to invoice DK Law after the end of the contract term, demanding payment and &#8220;harassing its employees&#8221; for payment, the customer alleged. <\/p>\n<p>In March 2026, Connex Inc, the US company, launched a legal claim in the New York case against DK Law in which it alleged DK Law had failed to make the required payments and breached its contract. <\/p>\n<p>The filing, which was originally made in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, and then moved to a New York District Court, said that in October 2024, the two companies entered into an agreement, which \u201crenewed for a subsequent term commencing on October 8, 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, in the separate but related California filing in April, DK Law alleged that ConnexAI had already breached the contract \u201cby failing\u2026 to implement and deliver telecommunications and software services in a manner consistent with industry standards.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It also said in the filing that ConnexAI&#8217;s claim that the contract had automatically renewed was not in accordance with New York State law, which \u201crequired Connex to give written notice of the automatic renewal in advance.\u201d The law covers telecommunications and software. ConnexAI \u201cnever provided the requisite notice of automatic renewal,\u201d DK Law alleged. <\/p>\n<p>In the California Court, DK Law seeks restitution and damages. <\/p>\n<p>In a statement to The Register, ConnexAI\u2019s Richardson questioned why Connex One Ltd was included on the California claim, given Connex Inc sued DK Law in New York. <\/p>\n<p>In the California filing, DK Law alleged the UK company \u201cdirectly participated in the sales process, provided or controlled implementation and support personnel, and directed or ratified the post-notice renewal and retention conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It said the US company is wholly owned and operated by the UK\u2019s Connex One Limited and acted as a contracting arm or agent. <\/p>\n<p>The case is now waiting to move through the courts. Last week, (August 27) the California court denied DK Law\u2019s claim, but only insofar as it \u201cstayed\u201d the case, pending the New York claim. In effect, that case is put on hold until the New York case is settled. <\/p>\n<p>DK Law is attempting to have the New York case dismissed and has requested the court hear oral arguments.\u00a0On September 1, in an order and opinion filed by federal magistrate judge Katharine H Parker, the motion to stay the case was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theregister.com\/files\/2026\/09\/03\/opinion_and_order_new_york_sept_1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">denied<\/a> [PDF].\u00ae\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Reg note: We are not accepting comments on this article and have closed the forum.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A US law firm is alleging that UK-based telecoms and software company ConnexAI sold it software and AI&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":759711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-759710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/759711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}