A significant cybersecurity incident has led to a complete shutdown of the state court network, impacting all levels of the judicial system, including the Supreme Court and various trial courts. The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) has engaged a third-party cybersecurity recovery team to address the situation, which requires a full reset and sanitization of the entire system. AOC officials have indicated that they anticipate restoring services by November 18.

The shutdown has severely disrupted court operations, with no access to critical case management systems such as Odysee, JAMS, and GIS. As a result, court staff have reverted to manual processes for case management, filing, and financial transactions, reminiscent of practices from a decade ago. This has led to a backlog of over 12,000 documents that will need to be manually entered once the system is restored.

Despite the challenges, some courts, particularly in Spokane County, have managed to maintain operations more effectively than others across the state. Spokane's courts have implemented modernization measures over the past decade, allowing them to function with less disruption compared to jurisdictions heavily reliant on the now-inaccessible state systems.

The Washington State Supreme Court has issued an emergency order extending deadlines for various legal processes due to the outage. While some courts have maintained their operations, the lack of access to electronic filing and case histories has created significant hurdles, particularly in coordinating cases across jurisdictions.

Judges and court administrators have expressed concerns about the growing backlog and the potential for extended delays in processing cases. Discussions are ongoing regarding the need for additional support and funding from the AOC to address the overtime and resources required to manage the backlog once the systems are back online.