Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Hartford Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then may have received a letter from the USDA. This letter is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is alleging you are in violation of the SNAP program. The USDA will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, and it will contain records of transactions which occurred at your retail store that the USDA claims is in violation of one or more categories of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you should definitely speak to our our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will suspend your stores privilege to take EBT.

About The SNAP Program

The SNAP program provides families with get food each month. These benefits are distributed to consumers via an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on the EBT card cannot legally be used for general usage, and they can’t be used for cash back services. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued in the state where the recipient lives. The program is operated on a nationwide level by the federal government.

The program and the benefits that come with it 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 does it mean to have a SNAP violation

SNAP legal violations happen if and when a store is in violation of the following rules.

The grocery store took part intrafficking SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting the benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

Your store submitted false information on your grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

Your store took money for more coupons than sale of actual food over the same period.

The employees of the store have taken 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 law firm can handle your SNAP violation process in all phases of a SNAP violation action.

Sending the letter is the first step which is taken by the USDA USDA to take away your right to take EBT benefits. This comes with, or without, prior warnings and can appear at any time. The charging letter will have allegations in it, but most of them will lay out serious allegations, with an attachment of details. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. 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.

After reviewing the store’s answer to the notice of violation, the USDA may still decide that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, the USDA will 100% issue a second letter that outlines their decision to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the allegations set forth. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you don’t, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, our team the legal papers to notify them we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and our team will generate an appellate brief which contains all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is critical to change the outcome of the violations.

In the event the USDA refuses to override the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This next phase is like a normal court case, where you’ll be able to do discovery, file motions, and have a trial. Our law firm 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 cases, many retail 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 buy electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If you conduct a serious SNAP violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores don’t know SNAP violations are even happening. Often, unethical employees who are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to discuss your case with a SNAP violation attorney in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is sent to your store, you have only 10 days to respond to the allegations. Failure to respond will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will make a verdict even if you choose not to 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 lawyers can discredit the decision of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The fines imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose does large fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. The policy must be in writing at the store and the policy must be when the allegations were filed.

The store owner must be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in place before the charge, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA typically also looks in order to check if the retail store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any store owner that receives a allegation letter consult with a SNAP violation attorney. Failure can result 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.