Statewide cyberattack continues to cripple Washington courts

WASHINGTON — A statewide cyberattack continues to cripple local court operations after state officials were made aware days ago. And now, the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) announced Thursday that a bug in its system threatens to interrupt service throughout this week.

According to an update from the AOC Thursday, the office works daily to restore, secure and reestablish the Washington Courts network. The office said that its priority is to reconnect trial and appellate courts safely to the services they need. Until the office restores the network, emergency messages from the courts will be posted on its website.

The office found “unauthorized activity” on the state courts network, according to the Washington Supreme Court Emergency Order 25700-B-720.

The statewide outage affects courts in Thurston County, Monroe, Renton, Puyallup, Bainbridge, King County, Pierce County, Whatcom County, and Lewis County. In addition, municipal courts in the cities of Kent, Des Moines, Bothell and Lake Forest Park are affected and may have limited hearings.

The Thurston County District Court is experiencing an outage, affecting the way they handle hearings. It said that if you have an infraction hearing, you’re not required to appear and you will receive a new court date. If you have a misdemeanor or civil hearing, then you must appear for your scheduled hearing date. For more information, call the court at 360-786-5450.

The municipal court in the City of Monroe has limited services at its front counter due to the outage. The clerk’s office will remain open but it’s unable to accept in-person or online payments at this time. Those who have criminal case proceedings and probation appointments are recommended to go to their scheduled hearings. Traffic ticket hearings will proceed as usual.

The Renton Municipal Court is also currently operating with limited services as of Nov. 4. The front counter, traffic ticket hearings and criminal case proceedings are impacted as well. The public is asked to call the court at 425-430-6550 with questions or concerns.

The municipal court that serves the cities of Puyallup and Milton are still impacted and only essential court functions will be available. The public is encouraged to check for updates before appearing at the courthouse. Essential hearings, probation and community services will continue as scheduled.

The phone is currently down for city staff in the City of Bainbridge Island and the Bainbridge Island Municipal Court is currently operating with limited services as of Nov. 4. If you need to contact a city staff member or have an issue, please email: cityadmin@bainbridgewa.gov and we will forward your request to the appropriate department for follow-up. If you have a time-sensitive issue, please call 206-670-3919 or 206-580-6735.

The Monroe Municipal Court is also still affected. The court cannot accept in-person or online payments. Its hearing proceedings are experiencing similar limitations to most of the impacted Washington state courts.

Pierce County Superior Court said it doesn’t expect any significant impact and the court will be in normal operating status as of Nov. 4. The court will review the impacts of this outage and provide updates on its website.

For a full list of the local court orders on the network outage, click here.

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