Wal-Mart policy change affects prosecutors' budgets

Friday, December 9th 2005, 2:50 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Cleveland County District Attorney Tim Kuykendall says a decision by Wal-Mart to use a collection agency to collect bad checks could force him to lay off more than a dozen employees.

Kuykendall says local prosecutors in Oklahoma collect hot checks and add a collection charge of about $140 per check. He says his office collected about $384,000 last year from people who wrote hot checks to Wal-Mart.

The face value of the check and other fees go back to the store.

Kuykendall says he has about 100 employees in the district attorneys office and 12 to 14 could have to be laid off.

A spokesman for Arkansas-based Wal-Mart says he's not aware of the policy change but will look for an explanation.