The Douglas County District Court clerk’s office will reduce its public hours so that staff members can catch up on a backlog caused by a cyberattack on the statewide court records system.
Beginning on Thursday, Feb. 1, the clerk’s office will be closed to the public from 3 to 5 p.m. weekdays while staff process work caused by a security incident on Oct. 12 that disrupted access to information systems used by courts across Kansas, according to a news release on Tuesday.
Douglas County District Court is working to update its case management system, including processing a backlog of more than 23,000 documents that have been filed since the system went down.
“We greatly appreciate the public’s patience as we work to catch up from the backlog that was caused by the security incident,” District Court Administrator Linda Koester-Vogelsang said in the release.
The Kansas Supreme Court on Nov. 21 announced the Kansas Judicial Branch was a victim of a foreign cyberattack that impacted daily operations of the state’s appellate courts and district courts in 104 counties, including Douglas County.
The Office of Judicial Administration then announced on Jan. 19 that electronic filing, with some limitations, was available to district courts. Initiating new cases, however, still must be done by paper.
Kansas district courts are currently working to add new cases as well as case documents that were filed while the system was offline. Information through the Kansas District Court Public Access Portal will be out of date until that’s complete.
Reduced hours in the clerk’s office are expected to continue through February.
Located inside the Judicial and Law Enforcement Center, 111 E. 11th St. in downtown Lawrence, the office will be open from 8 a.m. to noon and 1 to 3 p.m. weekdays.
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