Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Brownsville Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then it’s possible have been the recipient of a a letter from the USDA. The notice is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is stating you violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, which will contain transactions which occurred at your store that the USDA is saying is in violation of one or more groups of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you should speak to our our law firm. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will suspend your grocery store’s ability to accept EBT.

About The Program

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

This government and it’s parameters are governed by the United States Code and the Code of Federal Regulations. The USDA FNS agency enforces the regulations and runs the program.

What counts as a SNAP violation

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

The store took part inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting taking the 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 incorrect info on your store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

The store redeemed more EBT food stamps than sale of actual food during the same period.

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

How to defend your store against a SNAP violation

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 Violation action.

Sending the letter is the initial step taken by the USDA to take away your right to take EBT benefits. This comes with no warning and can appear at any time. The charging letter will contain allegations, but most letters will outline violations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. 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.

Once the USDA reviews your answer to the violation letter, the USDA may still decide that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, the USDA will issue another letter that specifically states the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the allegations set forth. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you don’t, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our lawyers, we file the necessary paperwork and notify them appeal the decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and we will draft generate the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the case law, evidence, etc. which is needed to overturn the decision.

If the USDA refuses to overturn the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This next phase is like a normal case, where you’ll be able to do 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 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 limits on how the funds can be used. For example, people getting SNAP benefits cant buy electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties 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 many situations, owners of grocery stores didn’t even know SNAP violations were even occurring. In many situations, unethical employees are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to consult with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is delivered to your retail store, you have only ten days to respond to the violations. 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. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals 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 on purpose imposes huge fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. It has to be in writing and the policy must be when the allegations were filed.

The retailer also 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 in order to check if the 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 that gets a allegation 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.