LA Superior Court closed Monday due to ransomware attack

Los Angeles County Superior Court said late Sunday that it would not open on Monday because of a ransomware attack that occurred on the same day that a global IT outage caused havoc across court systems, airports and hospitals. The two incidents are believed to be unrelated.

All 36 courthouse locations across Los Angeles are closed.

"The Court experienced an unprecedented cyber-attack on Friday which has resulted in the need to shut down nearly all network systems in order to contain the damage, protect the integrity and confidentiality of information and ensure future network stability and security," Presiding Judge Samantha P. Jessner said in a statement Sunday night. "While the Court continues to move swiftly towards a restoration and recovery phase, many critical systems remain offline as of Sunday evening. One additional day will enable the Court's team of experts to focus exclusively on bringing our systems back online so that the Court can resume operations as expeditiously, smoothly and safely as possible."

Please consult General Order 2024-GEN-009-00, issued by Jessner and granted by California Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero under Government Code section 68115, for specific information relating to filing deadlines and continuances.

Friday's IT outage, resulting from a CrowdStrike software update which affected some Microsoft-based systems, caused issues across California's state courts. Remote appearances were continued in some locations and there were delays as IT staff worked to bring computer systems in courtrooms back online.