Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Clearwater Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then it’s possible have received a letter from the USDA. This notification is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you have violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, which will contain records of transactions that occurred at your retail store that 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 law firm. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you choose to ignore, the government will suspend your grocery store’s ability to take EBT.

About The SNAP Program

This program helps families with money each month. These benefits are given with an EBT card. The benefits on the card cannot legally be used for general use, and they cannot be used for cash back services. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued by each state individually which the SNAP participant lives. This program is operated on a nationwide level by the government.

This program and it’s benefits 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 violations happen if and when a grocery store is in violation of the rules below.

The store took part inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting benefits, or theft of 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 store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

The grocery store redeemed more coupons than actual food sales 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 violation letters. Our team of attorneys can handle your SNAP violation process in all 3 phases of a SNAP violation 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. The letter can come with no warning and can appear at any time. The violation letter has a variety of allegations, but most letters will mention serious allegations, have evidence attached proving the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. Once 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 notice of violation, the USDA might still feel that a violation has occurred. If that happens, the USDA will 100% issue another letter which outlines the governments decision to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the allegations set forth. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you choose not to, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our law firm, we’ll file the necessary paperwork to notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and we will draft draft an appellate brief which contains all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to overturn the decision.

If the USDA refuses to change the binding decision, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. The Judicial Appeal is like a normal court 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 which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, many grocery store owners have no problems adhering to them. 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 purchase electronic goods. If, and when, you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe fines. If it’s believed you did a serious violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, store owners don’t know SNAP violations are even happening. Often, it’s dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP EBT 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 charge letter is presented to your retail store, you have only ten days to respond to the claims. Your failure to respond to the allegations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will make a verdict even though you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you cannot defend your store. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers can discredit the findings of the USDA and fight any decision. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully does huge fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. The policy must be in writing at the store and in effect when the violations were filed.

The store owner 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 typically also looks in order to see if the grocery store owners benefited from the violations, or were aware of the violation. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store that gets 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.