Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Beaverton Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then it’s possible have been the recipient of a a letter of warning from the USDA. The notification is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you have violated the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, and it will contain transactions which happened at your store which the government claims violates one or more categories of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you should definitely contact our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the government will suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT payments.

About The Program

The SNAP program helps families with a certain amount of money each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed to consumers through an EBT card. The funds on the card are not for general use, and they can’t be used for fraudulent cash back services. The cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued in the state where the recipient lives. This program is run on a nationwide level by the government.

The SNAP government 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 does it mean to have a SNAP violation

SNAP legal violations occur when a grocery store is in violation of the following rules.

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

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

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

Your grocery store redeemed more EBT food stamps than actual food sales during the same period.

The employees of the store took 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 appeals letters. Our law firm can handle your SNAP violation process in all phases of a SNAP action.

Sending the violation letter is the initial step which is going to be taken by USDA to remove your right to take EBT benefits. This comes with no warning and can happen at any time. The SNAP violation letter will contain allegations, but most of them will detail violations, have evidence attached proving the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. After you hire our law firm, our lawyers take into their hands 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 feel that a violation has occurred. If this happens, the USDA will definitely send a second letter which outlines the agencies legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have ten days to protest this verdict. If you choose not to, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, we file the necessary paperwork and notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and our team will generate an appellate brief containing all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is necessary to change the outcome of the violations.

If the USDA refuses to change the decision, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This process is like a normal 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 grocery store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, many grocery store owners don’t run into problems. However, SNAP can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, people getting SNAP benefits cant buy electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in fines, and penalties. If it’s believed you did a serious violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores didn’t know the violations are even occurring. In many situations, dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to discuss your case with a SNAP violation attorney to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is sent to your grocery store, you have only ten days to respond to the claims. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will make a verdict even if you choose not to 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 fight the findings of the USDA and fight any penalties. The financial penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully imposes huge 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 at the time the violations were filed.

The store owner also has to be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in place before the charge, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA will also look to check if the owners benefited from the violations, or were aware of the violation. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any owner that receives a violation letter speak to 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.