Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Royal Oak Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then may have gotten a official warning from the USDA. This notice is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you violated the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, and it will have 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 letter, you should contact our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you don’t respond, the government will terminate/suspend your grocery store’s ability to accept EBT.

About The SNAP Program

This program provides families with money each month. These benefits are given through an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on this card cannot be used for general usage, and they can’t be used for cash back services. The cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued by each state individually where the consumer 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 US 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 legal violations occur if and when a grocery store is in violation of the rules below.

The grocery store was involved inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

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

Your store redeemed more EBT food stamps than food sales at the same time.

Your employees have taken SNAP benefits from someone who shouldn’t be allowed to use the benefits.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

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

The charging letter is the first step which is taken by the USDA USDA to remove your right to take EBT benefits. This letter may come with, or without, prior warnings can come at any time. The charging letter will contain allegations, but most of them will lay out 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 decide that your store has violated the rules. If this happens, they’ll will issue another letter that specifically states their decision to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the alleged violations. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you don’t, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our law firm, our team the legal papers and notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and our team will generate the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to fix the outcome.

If the USDA refuses to change the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. The Judicial Appeal 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 grocery store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, many retail store owners have no problems adhering to them. However, USDA’s SNAP program can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limits on how the funds can be used. For example, people getting SNAP benefits cant buy electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can include fines and penalties. If you conduct a serious SNAP violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, store owners don’t even know SNAP violations were even occurring. In many situations, it’s dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to consult with a SNAP violation attorney to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is delivered to your grocery store, you have only 10 days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Failure to respond will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will generate 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 can discredit the decision of the USDA and appeal any decision. The financial penalties imposed can expensive – 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. It has to be in writing and in effect at the time the allegations were filed.

The grocery store must 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 typically also looks in order to see if the retail store owners benefited from the violations, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store 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.