Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Laredo Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then you might have gotten a official notice from the USDA. This notification is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is stating you violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, and it will have transactions that happened at your store which the USDA claims violates one or more genres of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you must speak to our our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the government will suspend your grocery store’s ability to accept EBT payments.

About The Program

The SNAP program provides families with a certain amount of money each month. These benefits are distributed to consumers via an EBT card. The benefits on this card cannot be used for general usage, and they cannot be used for fraudulent cash back services. The EBT cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued by each state individually where the consumer lives. The SNAP program is operated on a nationwide level by the federal government.

The SNAP program and it’s benefits are under handled by the US Code and the Code of Federal Regulations. The USDA FNS agency enforces the regulations and runs the program.

What counts as a SNAP violation

SNAP legal violations occur when a grocery store is in violation of the following rules.

The retail store took part inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

The retail store accepted SNAP benefits in exchange for nonfood items like alcohol, tobacco, or other goods.

Your store submitted incorrect information on the store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

The grocery store took money for more EBT food stamps than sale of actual food during the same period.

Your employees accepted SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t allowed to use them.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Our law firm has immense experience managing SNAP violations letters. Our law firm can handle your SNAP violation process in all phases of a SNAP violation action.

Sending the letter is the initial step which is taken by the USDA USDA to remove your right to take EBT benefits. This letter may come with no warning and can happen at any time. The SNAP violation letter will have allegations in it, but most letters will lay out serious allegations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. After you hire our law firm, we take into their hands all of the communicationswith the USDA and for compiling all the necessary evidence, and drafting a response to the USDA.

Once the USDA reviews your answer to the violation letter, the USDA might still believe that a violation has occurred. If this happens, the USDA will issue another letter that specifically states the governments decision to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the alleged violations. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you don’t, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our lawyers, our team the legal papers and notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and our team will generate the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is critical to fix the outcome.

If the USDA refuses to change the decision, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This process is like a normal court case, where you’ll be able to do discovery, file motions, and have a trial. Our lawyers can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a grocery store retailer, there are many laws have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most normal situations, many grocery store owners don’t run into problems. However, the SNAP program can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limits on how the funds can be used. For example, SNAP recipients cant purchase electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in fines, and penalties. If it’s believed you did a serious violation, then you may end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores didn’t even know the violations were even occurring. In many situations, it’s dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to consult with a SNAP violation lawyer in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is delivered to your retail store, you only have ten days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Your failure to respond to the violations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will generate a verdict even if you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you cannot defend your store. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers will discredit the decision of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully chooses to impose huge fines to curb violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. The policy has to be in writing at the store and the policy must be when the violations were filed.

The grocery store must has to be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in existence before the allegations, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA will also look to see if the owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any store that gets a letter consult with a SNAP violation attorney. Choosing not to respond in negative consequences. The USDA is required by Congress to issue a disqualification for a period of up to 5 years. This can result in huge losses which are hard to recover from.