Philadelphia City Hall building. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

Six weeks after the First Judicial District shut down its digital systems after being hacked, its website is back online and internal electronic work stations have been set up so court staff can enter filings. But the publicly accessible electronic docket and filing systems, the systems most heavily relied on by the city's legal industry, remain inaccessible.

While some attorneys have expressed frustration about the length of time the system has been down and the lack of information about the digital intrusion that lead to the shutdown, lawyers said few significant problems have arisen in recent weeks and they have largely adapted to a new normal.

“There are instances in which it's been a headache for certain types of practices, but most have adjusted to the new normal, or more like the old normal,” Albert Bixler, member-in-charge for Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott's Philadelphia office, said, referring to the fact that, with the electronic filing system down, all papers need to be filed in person at the courthouse.

Philadelphia's court system website has been shut down since the afternoon of May 21. According to a city spokesman, the move was done to “safeguard” the systems after the First Judicial District experienced a “virus intrusion on a limited number of computers.” The shutdown left the FJD's website, online civil docket search and e-filing system for civil and criminal cases inaccessible.

The court has offered little information about the intrusion so far, citing security concerns. Although court administrator Joseph Evers initially told The Philadelphia Inquirer on June 21 that the hack appeared to have originated from Russia, that claim was strongly and quickly walked back by court and city officials, including Mark Wheeler, chief information officer for the Kenney administration, who told The Inquirer on June 22 the investigation was still ongoing and the source was “not Russian.”

Regardless of the origin, court officials maintain that no court data was breached in the intrusion.

Over the past few weeks, the court's digital system has begun to show signs of life.

In mid-June, the court announced the Municipal Court Claims system was operational, and on Wednesday, the court announced its website was back up, although accessible only on Microsoft Edge, Safari and Firefox browsers.

For attorneys, those updates mean little, since the e-filing system and docket searches are still offline. In the meantime, law firms have adapted by having couriers file documents with the court in person and improvising ways to manually print out copies of dockets.

Rachel Gallegos, a senior staff attorney at Community Legal Service's homeownership and consumer rights unit, said the municipal court system getting back online was a big help, but simply determining the state of a new client's case, such as whether and when a lawsuit has been filed, can be difficult. Instead of a quick docket search, attorneys are much more reliant on court personnel and opposing counsel, who, Gallegos said, have by and large been very helpful.

Gallegos said frustration is ”a useless emotion” when you have clients potentially facing imminent sheriff sales.

“Six weeks in, you can only be angry so much,” she said. “We have to work with it, and work around it to the best of our ability.”

As of late June, civil attorneys said they had not heard of too many problems.

Raynes Lawn and Hehmeyer attorney Timothy Lawn, who is president of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association, said he emailed the group's members soon after the initial shutdown to let them know they should come to him with any problems, but has only received one complaint.

“I think people are trying to make do,” he said. “Everyone's trying to cooperate and get along.”

Criminal defense attorney A. Charles Peruto said he was surprised the court system had been penetrable and that it has taken so long to recover. However, he also said there have been few problems at the Criminal Justice Center.

“Filing by hand brought back memories,” he said.

Discovery documents, he said, are being passed between parties in packages, the way discovery used to be done before the e-filing system, but doing things manually has not slowed down trials, he said.

In City Hall, where the civil cases are handled, things appeared to be running smoothly as well. Although some reported lines of up to an hour in the immediate aftermath of the shutdown, there were no lines at the filing office on Thursday, and two couriers said the system was running smoothly.

“Even when it does get crowded, they got it under control,” courier Isaac Finkelstein said.