Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Doral Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then you might have been the recipient of a a letter of warning from the USDA. The letter is probably a SNAP violation letter, which is alleging you have violated the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, and it will have transactions which occurred at your retail store which the government claims is in violation of one or more genres of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you should definitely contact our law firm. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you don’t respond, the USDA will terminate/suspend your stores privilege to take EBT.

About The SNAP Program

This program helps families with funds to buy food each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed to consumers with an EBT card. The benefits on the EBT card cannot legally be used for general usage, and they cannot be used for cash back services. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued by each state individually where the recipient lives. This program is operated on a national level by the government.

This program and it’s benefits are governed 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 violations happen if and when a retail store violates any of the following rules.

The retail store took part inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

Your store submitted false information on your grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

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

Your employees accepted SNAP benefits from an unauthorized person who isn’t allowed to use the benefits.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

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

Sending the letter is the initial step which is going to be taken by USDA to take away your right to take EBT benefits. The letter can come with no warning and can appear at any time. The SNAP violation letter has a variety of allegations, but most letters will lay out serious allegations, with an attachment of details. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. Once 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 may still feel that a violation has occurred. If that happens, they’ll will definitely send a second letter which outlines 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, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our firm, our team the necessary paperwork to notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and our team will generate an appellate brief which contains all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is critical to overturn the decision.

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

SNAP Violations

As a food store retailer, there are many laws have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most normal situations, many retail store owners don’t run into problems. However, USDA’s SNAP program can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, people getting SNAP benefits cant get electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in fines, and penalties. If you conduct a serious SNAP violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores don’t even know the violations are even occurring. In many situations, it’s dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is presented to your store, you have only ten days to respond to the allegations. Your failure to respond will permanently crush your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will generate a verdict even though 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 the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers will discredit the decision 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 chooses to impose large fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. It has to be in writing and in effect when the violations were filed.

The store owner also be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in place before the charge, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA typically also looks to see if the grocery 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.

It’s highly recommended any 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.