Court looks for parents owed child support

ST. LOUIS -- The city's circuit court has tried to help more than $400,000 get to its rightful owners -- parents who did not get the child support money. Announced Thursday, an Internet list of about 1,700 names is one way officials have tried to work out the bugs as the state takes over as trustee of child support payments.

The Missouri Circuit Court of St. Louis has posted the parents' names on its Web site. Parents are owed child support money that was mailed out but neither cashed nor returned. Those on the list can call a phone number listed on the Web site to find out how to get their money. St. Louis Circuit Court Clerk Mariano Favazza said most of the parents on the list probably have moved away from St. Louis without leaving a forwarding address. The parents, mostly women, are owed a total in excess of $400,000.

"We're trying to put a live check in the hands of people who should get the dough," Favazza said.

Under a federal mandate, the Missouri Department of Social Services has taken over as trustee of child support payments in the state. As the circuit courts get out of the child support business, this list is a way the courts are tidying up loose ends. Favazza said that before the state started taking over child support cases in July 2000, his court distributed about $2.5 million each month.

"That's a lot of money, brother," Favazza said. "If even 2 percent of people didn't get them, that's a lot of people and a lot of money."

Child support money that is unclaimed eventually will be turned over to the state treasurer's unclaimed property program, which is government's "lost and found."