Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Ann Arbor Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then you might have gotten a letter from the USDA. This notice is probably a SNAP violation letter, which is stating you violated the SNAP program. The USDA will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, and it will have transactions that happened at your retail store which the government claims is in violation of one or more groups of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you should speak to our our law firm. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the government will suspend your grocery store’s ability to accept EBT payments.

About The Program

The SNAP program provides families with money each month. The SNAP program benefits are given with an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on this card are not for general usage, and they can’t be used for cash back services. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued in the state where the recipient lives. This program is operated on a nationwide level by the government.

This program and it’s benefits 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’s a SNAP Violation

SNAP legal violations occur if and when a grocery store violates any of the rules below.

The grocery store was involved inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

The store submitted false info on the retail stores application to accept EBT benefits.

The grocery store took money for more coupons than sale of actual food at the same time.

The employees of the store accepted SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t allowed to use them.

How to defend your store against a SNAP violation

Our law firm has experience handling SNAP appeals letters. We can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP violation action.

The charging letter is the first step which is taken by the USDA USDA to take away your EBT license. This comes with no warning and can appear at any time. The violation letter contain details about alleged violations, but most of them will mention violations, with an attachment of details. 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.

After reviewing the store’s answer to the SNAP violation letter, the USDA may still feel that a violation has occurred. If that happens, the USDA will definitely send another letter which outlines the governments decision to suspend or disqualify the store based on the accusations previously mentioned. Like before, you have 10 days to protest this verdict. If you choose not to, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our lawyers, we file the legal papers to notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll 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 override the legal decision, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This process is like a normal 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 are many laws have to obey in order to accept 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 get 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 SNAP violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores didn’t even know SNAP violations are even occurring. Often, it’s dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to discuss your case with a SNAP violation lawyer to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is delivered to your grocery store, you only have ten days to respond to the claims. Your failure to respond to the violations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will generate a verdict even though you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our SNAP appeals lawyers can challenge the decision of the USDA and fight any decision. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose chooses to impose large fines to curb violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. The policy has to be in writing and the policy must be when the violations were filed.

The grocery store must has to be able to prove the compliance policy was in place before the charge, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA typically also looks in order to see if the owners benefited from the violations, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store owner that gets a allegation letter consult 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.