Court officials are working to restore Washington’s online court records system

Washington state court officials are working to restore the state’s computerized court records system, which was shut down on Nov. 4 due to unauthorized activity.

Since the failure, courts, lawyers and the public have faced difficulties accessing important records and documents.

To mitigate the impact, local courts, including in Yakima County, have taken extraordinary measures, such as extending filing deadlines and adjusting hearing schedules.

The outage also affected background checks on gun purchases. The Washington State Patrol relies on the court records system for these checks.

Measures are being taken to solve the problem and restore the system. Court officials have not yet specified a time frame when the system will be fully restored.