Microsoft outage leaves courts and Whitehall in the dark

A global Microsoft outage that knocked out Outlook, Teams, and Copilot has paralysed the UK government and courts system, forcing officials to scramble for contingency plans. Following the outage, questions linger about the judgments due to be handed down Friday morning. Civil court judgments are usually handed down remotely via email before appearing on the Bailii and the Judiciary website. However, most government departments, including the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary, use Microsoft platforms, including Outlook, for email. City AM understands that a plan is being put in place to ensure journalists and parties can access the legal decisions, but the outage might delay some judgments until Monday. The outage has lasted nearly 17 hours across Britain and Europe, affecting governments and businesses, as Microsoft said its attempts to fix the problem produced only partial results and warned services could become unresponsive again even after being restored. “We’re continu