Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Merced Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then may have received a official notice from the USDA. This notice is probably a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, and it will have transactions that occurred at your store which the government is saying violates one or more genres of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you should contact our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will terminate/suspend your grocery store’s ability to take EBT.

About The Program

This program helps families with funds to buy food each month. These benefits are distributed with an EBT card. The benefits on this card are not for general use, and they can’t be used for cash back transactions. The EBT cards took over for 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 nationwide level by the government.

This government and it’s benefits 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 violations happen if and when a store violates any of the rules below.

The grocery store is accused ofthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

Your store submitted incorrect information on your retail stores application to accept EBT benefits.

The store took money for more EBT food stamps than actual food sales over the same period.

The employees of the store took SNAP benefits from someone who shouldn’t be allowed to use the benefits.

How to defend your store against a SNAP violation

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

Sending the violation letter is the initial step taken by the USDA to remove your EBT license. The letter can come with no warning and can appear at any time. The violation letter contain details about alleged violations, but most of them will lay out violations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. 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.

Once the USDA reviews your answer to the notice of violation, the USDA may still feel that your store has violated the rules. If this happens, they’ll will 100% issue another letter which outlines the agencies legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have 10 days to protest the decision. If you don’t, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, we file the legal papers to notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and our team will draft the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is critical to overturn the decision.

In the event the USDA refuses to change the binding decision, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District 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 lawyers can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a grocery store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, many retail store owners have no issues adhering to them. 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 should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe fines. If it’s believed you did a serious violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, store owners didn’t know the violations are even happening. Often, unethical employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to discuss your case with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is presented to your retail store, you only have ten days to respond to the violations. Your failure to respond to the violations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will deliver a verdict even if you choose not to 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 will discredit the findings of the USDA and appeal any decision. The penalties imposed can expensive – 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 look to see if you have a store compliance policy. The policy must be in writing and the policy must be when the allegations were filed.

The grocery store also has to be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in existence before the allegations, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA will also look to see if the grocery store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or were aware of the violation. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any grocery store owner that receives 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.