Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Costa Mesa Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then it’s possible have received a letter from the USDA. The letter is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is claiming you violated the SNAP program. The USDA will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, which will contain transactions that happened at your retail store which the government is saying is in violation of one or more genres of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation letter, you should definitely contact our legal team. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will terminate/suspend your grocery store’s ability to accept EBT payments.

About The SNAP Program

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

The federal and the benefits that come with it 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’s a SNAP Violation

SNAP legal violations happen when a store violates any of the following rules.

The retail store took part inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

The store submitted incorrect information on the grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

Your grocery store redeemed more coupons than food sales over the same period.

Your employees accepted 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. We can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP violation action.

Sending the letter is the initial step taken by the USDA to remove your EBT license. The letter can come with, or without, prior warnings and can appear at any time. The violation letter contain details about alleged violations, but most letters will lay out violations, with an attachment of details. You have only 10 days to respond. Once you hire our law firm, we 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 SNAP violation letter, the USDA may still feel that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, the USDA will definitely send another letter which specifically states their legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have 10 days to protest this decision. If you don’t, then you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our law firm, we file the necessary paperwork and notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and our team will draft the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is necessary to fix the outcome.

If the USDA refuses to override the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This process is like a normal case, where you’ll have to do standard processes like discovery, file motions, and have a trial. Our law firm 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 grocery store owners don’t run into problems. 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, SNAP recipients cant get electronic goods. If, and when, you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If it’s believed you did a major violation, then you may end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores don’t know the violations were even occurring. Often, unethical employees who are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is presented to your store, you only have ten days to respond to the violations. Your failure to respond to the violations 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 can challenge the decision 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 on purpose imposes huge fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. It must be in writing and in effect when 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 typically also looks in order to see if the owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend 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.