Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Apopka Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then it’s possible have gotten a official warning from the USDA. This letter is probably a SNAP violation letter, which is alleging you have violated the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, which will contain records of transactions that occurred at your grocery store which the USDA is saying violates one or more genres of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you must speak to our our law firm. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will suspend your stores ability to take EBT.

About The Program

This program helps families with funds to buy food each month. The SNAP program benefits are given via an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on this card are not for general use, and they cannot be used for cash back transactions. The EBT cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued by each state individually where the recipient lives. The SNAP program is run on a national level by the government.

The SNAP government and it’s benefits 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 does it mean to have a SNAP violation

Snap violations occur when a store is in violation of the rules below.

The grocery store is accused oftrafficking SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

Your store submitted false info on the store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

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

The employees of the store have taken SNAP benefits from an unauthorized person who isn’t allowed to use the benefits.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

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

Sending the violation letter is the initial step which is going to be taken by USDA to take away your right to take EBT benefits. This letter may come with no warning and can appear at any time. The charging letter will contain allegations, 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, 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 notice of violation, the USDA may still believe that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, they’ll will 100% issue another letter that outlines the governments legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the store based on the alleged violations. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you don’t, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our firm, we file the necessary paperwork and notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and we will draft draft an appellate brief which contains all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is necessary to overturn the decision.

If the USDA refuses to overturn the decision, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. The Judicial Appeal is like a normal 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 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 don’t run into problems. However, SNAP 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 buy electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe fines. If it’s believed you did a major violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, store owners didn’t even know the violations are even happening. In many situations, dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation attorney in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is presented to your retail store, you have only 10 days to respond to the violations. Your failure to respond will permanently crush your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will generate a verdict even though you don’t respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you cannot defend your store. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers can fight the findings of the USDA and fight any penalties. The financial penalties imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully imposes large fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. It must be in writing and in effect at the time the allegations were filed.

The retailer must has to be able to prove the compliance policy was in existence before the allegations, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA will also look in order to see if the grocery store owners benefited from the violations, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any store owner that receives a letter consult with a SNAP violation attorney. Failure can result 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.