After the drastic step to go completely offline because of a hack and the weeks of silence that followed, the Public Prosecution Service came for the first time with relatively good news on Monday afternoon. “The OM is going online again, but not complete,” the College of Procurators General announced.
“Soon” it will be in phases to reconnect the IT systems with the internet. When one of the first things “e-mailing for OM employees with the outside world” will be available again.
For the Amsterdam lawyer breath Çatbasş that is no reason to take back his words. This week he posted a call for a part -time administrative employee on LinkedIn. “The OM has been hacked by the Russians, so we are forced to do more with the mail and you jump in.”
Files, procedural documents, all correspondence and communication about current affairs since July 17 – when it was completely offline – has been done by letter or telephone. “I don’t have time and not a well -functioning administrative system for that,” says Çatbasş. It starts with a new client. “Normally I mail a letter to the OM and it is arranged immediately,” he refers to the mandatory report that makes a lawyer known that he will act on behalf of someone. Now çatbasş has to send a letter by post or, if there is a hurry, an emergency courier must go to the OM.
Hence the vacancy. It will remain current even after the OM-News from Monday. Because the OM also announced that it will “take some time” before everything works again as before. Papier continues to dominate the criminal proceedings, expects Çatbasş: “I don’t look for a trainee, you don’t even have to be a lawyer, but just someone who can steer all paper administration in the right direction.”
Read also
Digital working environment to indeed hacked, research must show which information has been stolen
There were really conceived with Macht and Macht Arounds
By bike
Thursday it was three weeks since the OM unloaded all computer systems completely from the internet. Hackers-whether they are actually Russians were not announced-it turned out that a leak in the Citrix software system has penetrated. To exclude that they are still in the network and to investigate whether and which data has been captured, it was about offline.
That led to an almost complete digital standstill. For the highly digitized criminal justice chain, the problems have been piling up since then: mailing with the OM cannot, digital criminal files and new procedural documents are inaccessible.
Soon parties in the criminal justice chain struck the improvisation so that criminal cases could continue. A spokesperson for Victim Support Nederland says that “in some cases, employees started to deliver the latest documents to support victims”. The case law took over various tasks of the OM and now e -mails, for example, instead of the OM, with the central judicial collection agency so that decisions can still be made.
“There are really with man and power Work Arounds conceived, “Karin de Lange, board member of the Dutch Bar Association. Nevertheless, the Order noted at the end of last week – after an inventory under the profession of more than nineteen thousand members – that lawyers suffer” great nuisance in the practice of their practice “.
Progress is visible in some areas. Three weeks ago, lawyers were still expected to come and pick up procedural documents at the OM. “That was impossible,” says De Lange, referring to the ten district parkets in the Netherlands. “Subsequently, documents were sent by registered mail and at our request a courier service is now also deployed.”
088 numbers
According to the law order, it is clear that the judiciary makes a maximum effort to solve the problems, but at the same time the OM “is not giving enough answer to the problems that lawyers and their clients are currently experiencing”.
An example, De Lange says, is that it is crucial for lawyers in the absence of computer access to be able to consult with the public prosecutor about the latest state of affairs. In response to this request for ‘short lines’, the lawyers received a list of 088 numbers. “Those are just the general songs of the OM,” says De Lange. “We don’t want to be able to speak to someone from the customer contact center, but the case officer.”
A complicating factor for lawyers – who are often nationally active – is that there is no nationally uniform working method. For example, Amsterdam lawyers say that this week the OM shared a list of mobile numbers of officers this week.
Driving license
In Oud-Beijerland, lawyer Marco Bos also encounters the IT problems at the OM. He has a client whose driver’s license has been collected – which happens, among other things, if someone drives more than 50 kilometers too fast. Such a driver’s license is sent to the public prosecutor who then has to decide on the return. But that officer is not available. “Through a complaint procedure at the court you can request a quick refund of that driver’s license, for example if someone needs the driver’s license for his work,” says Bos. Due to the emergency interest, such a case must be dealt with within two weeks. But that doesn’t happen now, at least not in the Rotterdam district. Bos: “The court says that it cannot register those cases because of the OM fault and therefore cannot schedule.”
Lawyer’s director De Lange calls on it to be more transparent about what can be expected in the coming weeks and clearly communicate about the work processes. “We know that work is being done around the malfunction, but clearly explain to us how and what is expected from lawyers.” A good example she believes that the OM has indicated that none of the emails that have been sent since July 17 is coming. Then a lawyer knows that an earlier mail has to go again, and now by post.
Advocaten is therefore required. In the meantime, Çatbaşs has already received application letters in Amsterdam, one of a high school student. “A sixth division, very enthusiastic, he said he might want to study law.”
Read also
Work to stop almost completely due to persistent IT problems
