Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Springfield Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then may have gotten a official notice from the USDA. This notification is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is claiming you are in violation of the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, which will contain transactions which happened at your retail store that the government is saying is in violation of one or more genres of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you should 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 grocery store’s ability to accept EBT payments.

About The Program

The SNAP program helps families with funds to buy food each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed via an EBT card. The funds on the card cannot legally be used for general use, 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 by each state individually where the recipient lives. The SNAP program is run on a nationwide level by the 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 retail store is in violation of the rules below.

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

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

The store submitted incorrect information on your grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

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

Your employees took 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 violation letter is the initial 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 of them will outline serious allegations, have evidence attached proving the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. 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 SNAP violation letter, the USDA might still believe that your store has violated the rules. If this happens, they’ll will issue another letter which specifically states their legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the alleged violations. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you choose not to, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our lawyers, we’ll file the legal papers to notify the government appeal the decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and our team will draft the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is critical to overturn the decision.

If the USDA refuses to change the legal decision, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This process is like a normal 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 food store retailer, there are many laws which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, 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, and when, you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in fines, and penalties. If you conduct a major violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores didn’t know SNAP violations were even happening. In many situations, unethical employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to discuss your case 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 retail store, you have only 10 days to respond to the violations. Failure to respond to the violations will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will generate a verdict even though you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you cannot defend your store. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our lawyers can discredit the decision of the USDA and fight any decision. The penalties imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose imposes large fines to curb violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. The policy must be in writing at the store and in effect when the violations were filed.

The grocery store must be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in place before the charge, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA will also look in order to check if the grocery store owners benefited from the violations, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any grocery 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.