Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Rockford Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then you might have received a letter from the USDA. This letter is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is stating you are in violation of the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, which will contain records of transactions that occurred at your store which the USDA is saying violates one or more genres of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you should definitely speak to our our law firm. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you don’t respond, the government will suspend your stores ability to accept EBT payments.

About The Program

This program helps families with funds to buy food each month. These benefits are given via an EBT card. The funds on the card cannot be used for general use, and they cannot be used for fraudulent cash back services. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued by each state individually where the consumer lives. This program is run on a nationwide level by the government.

This government and it’s parameters are governed by the United States Code and the Code of Federal Regulations. The USDA FNS agency enforces the regulations and runs the program.

What’s a SNAP Violation

SNAP legal violations occur if and when a retail store is in violation of the rules below.

The store is accused oftrafficking SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

The store submitted false info on the grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

Your 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 experience handling SNAP violations letters. Our team of attorneys can handle your SNAP violation process in all 3 phases of a SNAP violation action.

Sending the letter is the initial step which is going to be taken by USDA to take away your EBT license. This comes with no warning and can happen at any time. The violation letter has a variety of allegations, but most letters will outline violations, have evidence attached proving the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. Once 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.

After reviewing the store’s answer to the SNAP violation letter, the USDA might still decide that a violation has occurred. If this happens, the USDA will definitely send another letter which outlines their decision to suspend or disqualify the store based on the allegations set forth. Like before, you have ten days to appeal the verdict. If you don’t, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our law firm, we file the legal papers and notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and our team will draft an appellate brief containing all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to change the outcome of the violations.

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

SNAP Violations

As a food store retailer, there are many laws which you have to adhere to for 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 limitations. For example, people getting SNAP benefits cant purchase electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in fines, and penalties. If you conduct a major SNAP violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores don’t know SNAP violations are even occurring. In many situations, it’s dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation lawyer in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is delivered to your store, you have only ten days to respond to the violations. Your failure to respond to the violations will permanently crush your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will deliver a verdict even though you don’t respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you cannot defend your store. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our SNAP appeals lawyers can fight the findings of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose does 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 allegations were filed.

The store owner must has to be able to prove the compliance policy was in existence before the allegations, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA typically also looks to check if the retail store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store owner that receives a violation letter speak to 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.