California courts significantly impacted by global IT outage

Several state courts have had their operations significantly impacted by a global technology outage attributed to software company CrowdStrike and affecting Microsoft systems, with some remote appearances canceled and delays expected.

Los Angeles County Superior Court is experiencing "significant system-wide connectivity issues that are impacting the Court's ability to conduct business," according to a press statement.

"Matters where parties were scheduled to appear remotely today, July 19, will be continued and parties notified of a new date," the court advised.

The court advised that courthouses and clerk's offices remained open, and that the while court continues to accept electronic filing, its filing system was experiencing "connectivity issues." Attorneys experiencing connectivity issues who have a mandatory filing date on Friday are advised to visit the clerk's offices to file in person before 4:30pm.

The court advised: "Matters unable to be heard today due to connectivity issues will be continued. Litigants whose matters are unable to be heard today will be provided with notice of a continuance date. Last day criminal matters (preliminary hearings and trials) and statutorily-sensitive arraignments and hearings in the juvenile division will be addressed."

San Diego County Superior Court, which is also affected by the outage, advised those with hearings scheduled for today to still attend as planned.

"The San Diego Superior Court was affected by the mass IT outage and we are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Courtrooms are prioritized to be repaired and several are already operational. If you have a court date this morning, please report to the courtroom as scheduled," a press statement advised.

"If you were permitted to and planned to appear remotely, you may do so, however, you may need to wait in the Microsoft Teams "lobby" if that courtroom has not yet been repaired. We hope that all courtrooms will be operational later this morning."

San Diego's online filing system is currently operational.

Orange County Superior Court advised: "We are experiencing a technical issue with our systems today which may cause delays in our work and service to the public. We are working through them to reestablish full service."

Santa Clara County Superior Court advised in a press statement that desktop devices across all courthouses had been affected by the outage.

"In response to this outage, our IT department is actively deploying technicians to each courthouse. We are prioritizing courtrooms with morning calendars, ensuring the continuous operation of safety and security-related equipment, and maintaining service at Clerk's Office public service windows. These steps are essential to minimize disruptions and ensure that critical court functions continue smoothly," the statement read.

Paul T. Rosynsky, Alameda County Superior Court's public information officer, confirmed in an email that operations there had also been impacted by the outage.

"More than half of our computers would not boot up and our two case management systems could not be accessed. Our Office of Information Technology team worked to bring us back online with a focus on making sure the computers and case management system dealing with our criminal cases/calendar were operational. We managed to get that online this morning," Rosynsky wrote.

"We're still working on getting our civil case management system 100% operational. It's spotty with it working at times and not working," he added. "The impact for those using the Court was basically minor delays. We were able to keep our calendars moving. [The] worst case scenario were cases having to be continued."

Dan Radovich, a communications officer with San Mateo County Superior Court, wrote that while operations there had been impacted, parties were still expected to attend their hearings: "The San Mateo County Superior Court experienced impacts from the global technology outage this morning and worked quickly to address possible disruptions to court services. The Court has remained open and operational. All parties scheduled to appear in court today must still attend."

A spokesperson for San Francisco County Superior Court confirmed that operations there had not been affected by the outage.

It is understood that federal courts have not been affected by the outage.

This is a developing story, check back for updates.