The decision last November by Wal-Mart to change the way it handled bad check collections has pinched several District Attorney’s office across the state.

It has not, however, had a huge effect on District 26, which includes Woodward and four other Northwest Oklahoma counties.

“About 11 percent of what we make through the bogus check division comes from Wal-Mart,” said Director of the Restitution & Diversion Division of the D.A.’s office, Jane Stanley. “This corporate decision by Wal-Mart really will not have as much of an impact here on us as it does on the D.A. Office such as in Oklahoma County.”

In 2004, the D.A.’s office in Woodward had 5,219 checks turned over to its bogus check department. The 11 percent that Wal-Mart was responsible for comes to 574 checks in that year.

The five counties in the district include only two Wal-Mart stores – one in Alva and one in Woodward.

The change was a big one, though, statewide. Since it first came to Oklahoma, Wal-Mart has used the district attorney’s offices to combat bogus checks. Then, Wal-Mart decided to change directions and use one vendor nationwide for all of its stores to take care of the problem.

In 2005, District Attorney’s offices in Oklahoma collected more than $14.1 million in fees for their respective offices as well as $13 million in restitution for merchants. According to Finance Director for the Oklahoma District Attorney’s Council, Byron Cate, of the $14.1 million in hot-check income about $3 million came from Wal-Mart.

The statewide bad check program has been a fixture in Oklahoma for the past 24 years. According to the Oklahoma District Attorney Association, writers of bad checks for $50 or less pay for the check, plus a $114 fee to the district attorney's office and a $25 fee to the victim. For checks of more than $50, the writer must pay for the check, $134 to the district attorney's office and $25 to the victim.

For the first 19 years of the program, fees collected had to go back into the program. A few years ago however, the State Legislature allowed fees collected under the program to be used in the general operating budgets of the district attorney’s offices.

Stanley isn’t worried about the loss of funds in her office.

“Districts that have several Wal-Mart stores in it will be hurt a lot worse than we will be in our area,” said Stanley. “With only the two stores in our district our bogus check numbers will not see that much of an impact. We have several other larger customers not including Wal-Mart in our five-county district. We hate to lose Wal-Mart or anyone for that matter because we are here to help victims of bogus check fraud. Anytime we can help any business receive restitution from someone trying to cheat the system we want to.”

Wal-Mart spokesperson Sharon Weber recently told the CNHI News Service that the company believes the nationwide change makes sense because “we have controls in place that we feel is best for all concerned.”

Note: The CNHI News Service contributed to this report.