Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Burbank Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then it’s possible have been the recipient of a a official notice from the USDA. The notice is probably a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you are in violation of the SNAP program. The USDA will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, which will contain records of transactions which happened at your store that the government is saying violates one or more categories of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation letter, you must contact our law firm. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you don’t respond, the government will terminate/suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT.

About The Program

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

This federal and the benefits that come with it are under handled by the United States 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 violations happen when a retail store violates any of the following rules.

The retail store was involved intrafficking SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting the benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

The store submitted false info on your store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

The grocery store redeemed more EBT food stamps than sale of actual food at the same time.

The employees of the store accepted SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t allowed to use them.

How we can help defend you against a SNAP violation notice

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

Sending the letter is the first step taken by the USDA to remove your EBT license. This comes with, or without, prior warnings and can happen at any time. The charging letter will have allegations in it, but most letters will detail 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, our lawyers 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 notice of violation, the USDA might still believe that a violation has occurred. If that happens, the USDA will definitely send a second letter that outlines their legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the store based on the allegations set forth. Like before, you have ten days to appeal this verdict. If you choose not to, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our firm, our team the appeal to notify them we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and we will draft draft an appellate brief containing all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is necessary to change the outcome of the violations.

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

SNAP Violations

As a food store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most cases, many retail store owners have no issues adhering to them. However, SNAP 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 get electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can include fines and penalties. If you conduct a serious SNAP violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, store owners don’t even know the violations were even happening. In many situations, it’s dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation attorney in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is sent to your grocery store, you have only 10 days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Failure to respond to the violations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will generate a verdict even though you don’t respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our SNAP appeals lawyers can challenge the findings of the USDA and fight any decision. The financial penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully does huge fines to curb violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. The policy has to be in writing at the store and in effect at the time the violations were filed.

The store owner must be able to prove the compliance policy was in place before the charge, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA typically also looks in order to check if the owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or were aware of the violation. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any owner that receives a violation 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.