Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Des Moines Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then may have gotten a letter of warning from the USDA. The notification is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is stating you violated the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, and it will contain records of transactions which occurred at your store that the government claims violates one or more categories of violations.

The first thing 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 government will terminate/suspend your stores ability to accept EBT.

About The Program

The SNAP program helps families with a certain amount of money each month. These benefits are distributed with an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on the 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 by each state individually which the SNAP participant lives. This program is run on a nationwide level by the federal government.

This federal and it’s parameters 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 violations occur if and when a store violates any of the rules below.

The grocery store is accused oftrafficking SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

The store submitted incorrect information on your retail stores application to accept EBT benefits.

The grocery store redeemed more coupons than sale of actual food 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.

How we can help defend you against a SNAP violation notice

Our law firm has immense experience handling SNAP violation letters. Our team of attorneys can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP action.

Sending the violation letter is the first step which is going to be taken by USDA to remove your EBT license. This letter may come with, or without, prior warnings can come at any time. The violation letter will have allegations in it, but most of them will lay out violations, with an attachment of details. You have only 10 days to respond. After you hire our law firm, we take into their hands 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 might still feel that a violation has occurred. If that happens, the USDA will definitely send a second letter which outlines the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the store based on the allegations set forth. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you don’t, then you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our lawyers, we’ll file the appeal and notify them appeal the decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and we will draft draft an appellate brief containing all of the case law, evidence, etc. which is necessary to overturn the decision.

If the USDA refuses to change the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This next phase is like a normal federal court case, where you’ll be able to do discovery, file motions, and have a trial. Our law firm can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a food 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, USDA’s 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 get electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in fines, and penalties. If it’s believed you did a major violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores don’t even know SNAP violations were even occurring. In many situations, it’s dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to speak with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is delivered to your grocery store, you have only ten days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Failure to respond to the violations will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will make a verdict even if you don’t respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you cannot defend your store. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will fight the decision of the USDA and fight any penalties. The penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose does huge fines to curb violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. It must be in writing at the store and in effect when the violations were filed.

The grocery store also has to be able to prove the compliance policy was in place before the charge, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA typically also looks to check if the retail store 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 owner that receives a letter consult 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.