Judicial branch reaches another milestone in cyberattack recovery

Efiling restored statewide, reducing paper filings in district courts

TOPEKA—Kansas courts reached another milestone this week in their recovery from an October 12 cyberattack that disrupted access to information systems used by courts statewide.

As of Thursday, with some limited exceptions, electronic filing is available in district courts statewide. If a case exists in the Kansas eCourt case management system, documents can be filed electronically. However, new case initiation is still by paper until that functionality is operable in the efling system.

“District courts have been backloading paper filings since they regained access to the case management system in December,” Chief Justice Marla Luckert said. “With the efiling system back online, and attorneys returning to using it, the number of paper filings received by courts should be greatly reduced. This will help courts that are uploading paper documents filed while our systems were offline.”

Court information systems will remain out of date until new cases, case filings, and case payments that occurred after October 12 are added to the case management system. That work is ongoing.

Electronic filing in most cases

Although district courts can receive electronic filings in cases that exist in the Kansas eCourt case management system, some paper filings will continue temporarily.

If a new case was created on paper while the case management system was offline, filings will be on paper until the case is added to the case management system.

Also, until new case initiation features are operable in the upgraded Kansas Courts eFiling system, new cases will continue to be initiated on paper.

An electronic filer can tell whether an existing case is in the case management system by searching for it in the efiling system. If there isn’t a match, filings will be on paper until the case is added to the system.

Case information through public access portal

The Kansas District Court Public Access Portal has been online since early January. It can be used to search public case information in the Kansas eCourt case management system. 

District courts are working to add new cases and case documents filed while the case management system was offline. Until that work is complete, information through the portal will be out of date.

Several courts have reported successfully completing this work. To track which courts have finished updating the case management system with paper filings, visit Status of District Court Restoration.

Online payments and payment information

Fines and fees can be paid through the Kansas District Court Public Access Portal and those payments will be recorded in real time. However, payments made while the case management system was offline may not appear.

The Central Payment Center in the Office of Judicial Administration is recording payments made while the case management system was offline. That work is ongoing.

For more information, visit Pay a Fine or Fee and Portal Information After Cybersecurity Incident.

Appellate information systems

Work to restore electronic filing in the appellate courts is also ongoing, as is work on the appellate case management system. The Office of Judicial Administration will share progress reports as these functions are restored.

Updates

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