A series of faux pas in the Warren County attorneys office has left as many as 40 Warren County residents without child support checks for almost a month. Currently, employees from the state Division of Child Support are in Bowling Green hoping to lend a hand to overwhelmed workers at Friend of the Court, which acts as a clearinghouse for child support payments in the county attorneys office. The confusion could be cleared up and checks sent out as early as next week if all goes as planned, according to Steven Veno, director of the state Division of Child Support. During the past two years, Kentucky has switched to a centralized form of child support distribution and has experienced occasional glitches during county transitions, but a preventable problem such as this is odd, Veno said. The problem began when Friend of the Court received child support money and information from employers and decided to return them to sender instead of forwarding them to Lexington, Veno said. This ones a first, Veno said. This is rare because it was beyond our control. Fortunately, its something that can easily be fixed and were working with the county attorneys office there in Bowling Green. The problem is one of those things where a local entity made a decision they thought was right, but maybe could have been handled differently, he said. As a result, Friend of the Court sent a letter to child support recipients informing them of a temporary delay and gave them a toll-free number for Policy Studies of Lexington which is a clearinghouse for checks of private child support cases and not affiliated with Friend of the Court or the state Division of Child Support. Pam Miller, a case specialist for Policy Studies, said they were not informed of the Warren County problem and did not learn of it until people began clogging their phones with frustration and complaints. They (the Warren County attorneys office) are sending out letters with our number on them, but it has been such a mass majority that we just havent been able to get to anyone in the timeframe theyre wanting us to, Miller said. Warren County parents expecting the checks have made phone calls, left messages that are not returned and experienced growing frustration after three weeks without checks, according to parent Fay Hazel of Bowling Green. As we speak, Im $461.94 behind in child support, said Hazel, who received a letter from Friend of the Court. Thats three weeks. Im sure people are hurting. I cant get anybody to return my calls. I just get voice mail. Other parents such as Janet Watkins said she never received a letter and hasnt seen a child support check since March 16, Watkins said Thursday. Miller said the frustration is shared by her department and that any questions about why this happened should be directed to the county attorneys office in Warren County. They are the ones who sent the letter out and caused the problem. An additional mistake occurred when Friend of the Court failed to promptly notify state authorities about the mishap, which could have helped alleviate the waiting, Veno said. Veno said his office learned of the error when complaints began surfacing at his Frankfort office. Its unfortunate for all these people, Veno said. I wish we had found out sooner. We could have avoided all this. Friend of the Court serves as a clearinghouse agency for Warren County residents. The organization receives checks and then forwards them to the appropriate people. In 1998, legislators enacted a state law that followed a federal mandate to eliminate the multiple small agencies and create a central child support clearinghouse in each state. Friend of the Court in Warren County is phasing out and will shut down once the child support check confusion is fixed. Warren County Attorney Mike Caudill, whose office oversees the organization, was out of town and unavailable for comment on Thursday and Friday.