| WV families have routinely been denied child support payments because of lax state oversight, says a lawsuit filed in Kanawha County Circuit Court.
A class action suit has been filed by Charleston attorney Rusty Webb, who is seeking class action status for his lawsuit on behalf of Kimberly Hoover and her juvenile child.
Webb's lawsuit says that the state Bureau for Child Support Enforcement has declined to renew child support judgments, resulting in hundreds of thousands of lost dollars or un-collectible claims.
Webb says the problem has happened in every West Virginia county.
He is hoping to have the case certified as a class-action matter.
Named in the suit are the state Department of Health and Human Resources, which oversees the child support bureau, and Colorado-based Policy Studies Inc., a subcontractor for the bureau in Kanawha and Clay counties that collects child support payments.
The lawsuit says that a woman who was entitled to $201 per month in child support payments, was owed more than $28,155 in back payments by the father.
The suit says the child support bureau neglected to renew the child support order.
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