The big hack at the Public Prosecution Service (OM) not only explains digital systems flat, but also touches the daily justice in Drenthe. Lawyers no longer receive any documents, files are incomplete and emergency decisions are stuck.
Criminal lawyer Ronald Knegt, affiliated with law firm Anker & Anker, is worried: “I don’t know what information I miss. And that makes the work extra complex.”
The consequences are drastic. Digital contact with the OM is impossible. Lawyers and courts suddenly work on paper again, with phone calls, letters and couriers. It causes noticeable problems, also in Drenthe. This week a change in the indictment could not be processed on time in Assen. The result: a lower punishment than was possible. The OM calls it an example of how vulnerable the criminal proceedings are if systems fall out.
Knegt sees that in daily practice. Since July 18, he has not received any piece through the Lawyers Portal, the digital system in which normally probation reports, judgments or witness statements are shared. “Simply: I don’t know what I’m missing, and how long,” he says. “That means that important periods can be overlooked. And that a request for suspension of pre -trial detention, for example, cannot be submitted because the required report is missing.”
That causes concrete problems. “This week I had a session in which information about a treatment process was crucial for the ruling,” says Knegt. “That information was sent to the OM, with the request to spread it further. But during the hearing it turned out: the public prosecutor did not have it, the court did not, and I did not. Then a court must make a decision based on an incomplete file, or postpone the decision.”
In another case, he urgently had to contact the OM. Where that normally goes by e-mail, an old-fashioned letter procedure has now been chosen. “We convert e-mails in letters, which are sent to the court through the counter. Each letter must be printed and registered, after which he goes to the OM via a courier. That is labor-intensive and slows the entire chain.”
Especially for suspects in pre -trial detention, the situation is dire. The law sets strict limits how long someone can be stuck. Without current information, a lawyer cannot do his job well, says Knegt. “It happens that someone simply does not hear what happens to his case. The probation service has not been able to give advice, the OM cannot judge pieces, and the lawyer touches in the dark. While the clock is ticking.”
Meanwhile, several crisis teams are working on recovery at the OM. An incident response team investigates how deep the burglary went, while a recovery team is working on reconstruction of the systems. In the meantime, a Business Impact Team is looking at how the work can continue as much as possible.
The only windfall? “It’s a construction trade, and that means it is just a bit quieter in criminal justice,” says Knegt. But the backlog that is now arising must soon be overtaken. “Things are piling up. Think of losing an objection or profession, the designation and registration of lawyers, the distribution of procedural documents. Everything that is now stinging must happen later.”