Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Apex Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then may have gotten a official warning from the USDA. The notice is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is claiming you violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, which will contain records of transactions which happened at your store which the USDA claims violates one or more groups of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation letter, you must contact our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the government will terminate/suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT payments.

About The SNAP Program

This program provides families with get food each month. These benefits are given with an EBT card. The funds on this card cannot legally be used for general use, and they can’t be used for cash back services. The 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 program is operated on a nationwide level by the government.

The program 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 does it mean to have a SNAP violation

SNAP legal violations happen if and when a store is in violation of the following rules.

The retail store took part inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

Your store submitted incorrect information on your store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

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

Your employees 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 immense experience handling SNAP appeals letters. Our team of attorneys can handle your SNAP violation process in all phases of a SNAP action.

Sending the letter is the initial step which is taken by the USDA USDA to remove your EBT license. This letter may come with, or without, prior warnings can come at any time. The violation letter contain details about alleged violations, but most letters will detail serious allegations, have evidence attached proving 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.

After reviewing the store’s answer to the SNAP violation letter, the USDA may still feel that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, the USDA will issue another letter which outlines their legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the allegations set forth. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you don’t, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, we file the necessary paperwork and notify them appeal the decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and our team will draft an appellate brief containing all of the case law, evidence, etc. which is needed to fix the outcome.

In the event the USDA refuses to overturn the decision, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This process is like a normal federal court case, where you’ll have to do standard processes like 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 you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, many retail store owners don’t run into problems. 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 get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If you conduct a serious violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores don’t even know the violations are even occurring. In many situations, unethical employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to speak with a SNAP violation lawyer in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is presented to your grocery store, you only have 10 days to respond to the violations. Your failure to respond to the violations will permanently crush your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will make a verdict even if 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 a fighting change. Our lawyers can discredit the decision of the USDA and appeal any decision. The penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully chooses to impose huge fines to curb violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. It must be in writing and the policy must be at the time the violations were filed.

The retailer must has to 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 to check if the retail 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.

We highly recommend 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.