Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Eau Claire Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then you might have been the recipient of a a letter from the USDA. The letter is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is claiming you violated the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, and it will contain transactions that occurred at your grocery store which the government is saying violates one or more groups of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you must speak to our 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 stores ability to take EBT.

About The SNAP Program

This program provides families with funds to buy food each month. These benefits are distributed via an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on the EBT card aren’t for general use, and they can’t be used for fraudulent cash back services. The cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued in the state which the SNAP participant lives. The SNAP program is run on a national level by the federal government.

The SNAP government and it’s parameters 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 legal violations happen 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 benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

The store submitted false information on the retail stores application to accept EBT benefits.

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

The employees of the store 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 immense experience managing SNAP violation letters. Our law firm can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all phases of a SNAP 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. This letter may come with no warning and can appear at any time. The charging letter has a variety of allegations, but most of them will outline violations, have evidence attached proving the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. 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 SNAP violation letter, the USDA might still decide that a violation has occurred. If this happens, the USDA will issue another letter that specifically states the governments legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the store based on the allegations set forth. Like before, you have 10 days to protest the verdict. If you choose not to, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, we file the appeal and notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and our team will generate an appellate brief which contains all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is necessary to overturn the decision.

If the USDA refuses to change the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This next phase is like a normal federal 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 food store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most normal situations, many retail store owners don’t run into problems. However, USDA’s SNAP program can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, SNAP recipients cant purchase electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in fines, and penalties. If you conduct a serious violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores don’t know the violations were even occurring. In many situations, it’s dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation 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 store, you only have 10 days to respond to the claims. Failure to respond will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will generate 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 a fighting change. Our lawyers can fight the findings of the USDA and fight any decision. The financial penalties imposed can be huge – 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 and in effect at the time the allegations were filed.

The store owner also be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in existence before the allegations, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA typically also looks to check if the grocery store owners benefited from the violations, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any owner that gets a violation 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.