Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Bend Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then you might have received a letter from the USDA. The letter is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is alleging you are in violation of the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, which will contain transactions that happened at your retail store that the government is saying is in violation of one or more categories of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you should speak to our our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you don’t respond, the USDA will terminate/suspend your stores ability to accept EBT payments.

About The SNAP Program

The SNAP program provides families with a certain amount of money each month. These benefits are distributed to consumers via an EBT card. The benefits on this card cannot be used for general use, and they cannot be used for cash back transactions. The cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued in the state where the consumer lives. This program is run on a national level by the federal government.

This program and the benefits that come with it are governed 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 if and when a retail store is in violation of the following rules.

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

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

The store submitted incorrect info on the store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

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

Your employees took SNAP benefits from someone who shouldn’t be allowed to use the benefits.

How to defend your store against a SNAP violation

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

Sending the violation letter is the first step taken by the USDA to take away your EBT license. This letter may come with no warning and can happen at any time. The violation letter will contain allegations, but most of them will outline serious allegations, with an attachment of details. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. 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 violation letter, the USDA might still feel that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, they’ll will 100% issue another letter which outlines the governments decision to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the accusations previously mentioned. Like before, you have 10 days to protest this decision. If you choose not to, then you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our firm, our team the necessary paperwork to notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and our team will generate an appellate brief which contains all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to change the outcome of the violations.

In the event the USDA refuses to overturn the binding decision, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. The Judicial Appeal is like a normal federal court case, where you’ll be able to do 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 which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, many retail store owners have no problems adhering to them. 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, people getting SNAP benefits cant buy electronic goods. If, and when, you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If it’s believed you did a serious SNAP violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores didn’t even know SNAP violations were even occurring. Often, unethical employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation attorney to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is delivered to your grocery store, you have only 10 days to respond to the allegations. Your failure to respond to the allegations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will deliver a verdict even if you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you cannot defend your store. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers will fight the decision of the USDA and appeal any penalties. 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 typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. The policy must be in writing and in effect when the violations were filed.

The store owner must has to be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in existence before the allegations, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA typically also looks in order to check if the owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any grocery store owner that gets a 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.