Judicial branch continues restoring case management system in district courts

Access to efiling system expected after first of year

TOPEKA—The Kansas judicial branch phased restoration of the Kansas eCourt case management system in district courts continues, although at a slower pace than had been planned.

The case management system is used by district courts to process cases. It is among several information systems temporarily incapacitated by an October 12 cyberattack.

District courts in nine judicial districts encompassing 28 counties had their access to the case management system restored as of December 19. Two more judicial districts were added December 22, eight were added yesterday, and one will be added this afternoon. 

The restoration plan originally called for courts in 104 counties to be back on the case management system by the end of last week, but system performance slowed the effort.

Courts that regained access December 22 and after

The two judicial districts that regained access December 22 are:

• 28th Judicial District: Ottawa and Saline counties

• 30th Judicial District: Barber, Harper, Kingman, Pratt, and Sumner counties

Judicial districts that regained access yesterday are:

• 2nd Judicial District: Jackson, Jefferson, Pottawatomie, and Wabaunsee counties

• 6th Judicial District: Bourbon, Linn, and Miami counties

• 11th Judicial District: Cherokee, Crawford, and Labette counties

• 14th Judicial District: Chautauqua and Montgomery counties

• 16th Judicial District: Clark, Comanche, Ford, Gray, Kiowa, and Meade counties

• 20th Judicial District: Barton, Ellsworth, Rice, Russell, and Stafford counties

• 22nd Judicial District: Brown, Doniphan, Marshall, and Nemaha counties

• 24th Judicial District: Edwards, Hodgeman, Lane, Ness, Pawnee, and Rush counties

The 18th Judicial District, which is Sedgwick County, will regain access this afternoon.

Resolving performance issues
 
As more courts regained access to the case management system, court personnel reported performance issues affecting how financial activities are recorded.

Through troubleshooting the issues with support from system experts, the Office of Judicial Administration determined case processing and backfilling case events are unaffected and can continue.

System experts will continue to troubleshoot, isolate, and resolve system performance issues that affect recording financial activities.

Electronic payments to courts

Until performance issues are resolved, courts operating on the case management system will continue to use a paper receipting process adopted after the October 12 cyberattack.

When the system issues are resolved, courts will take payments electronically.

Portal access through courthouse terminals only

When the case management system is restored in a district court, that court can offer visitors the option to search district court case information through a courthouse terminal.

Because courts have not had access to the case management system for several weeks, case events and case documents dated after October 12 are not likely to show up in search, at least initially. It could take courts several weeks to bring all case events and documents up to date.

A similar search capability through the web-based Kansas District Court Public Access Portal will not be available until sometime after all district courts have their access to the case management system restored.

The public can continue to search cases through a public access service center in the Kansas Judicial Center in Topeka or visit a district court that has regained access to the case management system.

Clerk of district court hours of operation

The Office of Judicial Administration recommended district courts consider several strategies to bring the case management system up to date. One recommendation is to temporarily modify clerk office hours to give staff uninterrupted time to focus on entering case events and adding documents.

A person who has business with a court clerk office is advised to check the district court’s website or call the court clerk office to verify their current hours of operation. Modified clerk office hours do not affect scheduled court appearances.

Visit District Courts for court contact information.

Kansas Courts eFiling

The Kansas Courts eFiling system used by attorneys to electronically file documents in district courts is expected to be available after the case management system is restored in district courts, or after the first of the year.

Appellate information systems

The efiling and case management systems used by the Kansas Supreme Court and the Kansas Court of Appeals will be brought back online after district court systems. The Office of Judicial Administration will share a timeline as work advances.

Updates

Updates on the cyberattack and efforts to restore court information systems are on the Court Systems Security Incident webpage.

Other courts operating on Kansas eCourt case management system

Judicial branch begins restoring case management system in district courts