Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Elgin Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then it’s possible have gotten a notice from the USDA. The letter is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is claiming you violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, and it will have transactions that happened at your store that the USDA is saying is in violation of one or more groups of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you must contact our law firm. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will suspend your stores ability to accept EBT payments.

About The SNAP Program

This program helps families with a certain amount of money each month. These benefits are distributed with an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on the card cannot be used for general usage, and they cannot be used for cash back services. The cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued in the state which the SNAP participant lives. This program is operated on a national level by the federal government.

The SNAP program and it’s parameters 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’s a SNAP Violation

SNAP legal violations happen when a store violates any of the rules below.

The grocery store was involved inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

The store submitted incorrect info on the store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

The grocery store took money for more coupons than food sales over the same period.

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

How to defend your store against a SNAP violation

Our law firm has immense experience handling SNAP violation letters. We can handle your SNAP violation process in all 3 phases of a SNAP Violation action.

The charging letter is the initial step taken by the USDA to remove your EBT license. This letter may come with, or without, prior warnings and can happen at any time. The violation letter will have allegations in it, but most letters will outline violations, have evidence attached proving the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. After you hire our law firm, we handle 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 a second letter that specifically states the governments legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have 10 days to protest the verdict. If you choose not to, then you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our firm, we file the appeal to notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and our team will draft an appellate brief containing all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is critical to change the outcome of the violations.

If the USDA refuses to change the violation claim, 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 you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, many retail store owners have no problems adhering to them. However, the SNAP program can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, SNAP recipients cant get electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in fines, and penalties. If it’s believed you did a major SNAP violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores don’t even know SNAP violations were even occurring. In many situations, 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 charge letter is delivered to your grocery store, you have only ten days to respond to the allegations. Your failure to respond to the allegations will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond 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 a fighting change. Our lawyers will fight the findings of the USDA and appeal any decision. The fines imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully chooses to impose 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 has to be in writing at the store and in effect when the allegations were filed.

The grocery store must 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 in order to see if the grocery 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 owner that gets a allegation letter speak to 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.