Lawyers were worried that HM Courts & Tribunals Service’s Common Platform had been hacked amid reports some had been locked out or their accounts had been deactivated last weekend. Fortunately, the system hadn’t been hacked, HMCTS confirmed – accounts that had been inactive for 90 days had just been deregistered in line with the agency’s security policy.

‘A technical error meant that users did not receive advanced warning as they should have done,’ HMCTS tweeted. There’s never a good time for a technical error but the timing of this particular technical error was unfortunate, given HMCTS has been encouraging lawyers to complete a short survey on how well it communicates with them about its work, including day-to-day operations.

‘Are we using the right channels to reach the right people at the right time?’ asks HMCTS, which should brace itself for a resounding ‘no’ from Common Platform users.

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