Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Fayetteville Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then may have been the recipient of a a letter of warning from the USDA. The notice is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is stating you are in violation of the SNAP program. The USDA will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, and it will have records of transactions that happened at your store that the government is saying violates one or more categories of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you must contact our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you don’t respond, the USDA will terminate/suspend your grocery store’s ability to accept EBT.

About The Program

The SNAP program helps families with money each month. These benefits are distributed with an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on this card are not for general use, and they can’t be used for cash back services. The EBT cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued by each state individually which the SNAP participant lives. The SNAP program is run on a nationwide level by the government.

This federal 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 counts as a SNAP violation

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

The store is accused oftrafficking SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

The store submitted false information on the store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

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

Your employees have taken SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t allowed to use them.

How we can help defend you against a SNAP violation notice

Our law firm has immense experience handling SNAP violations 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 first step which is taken by the USDA USDA to remove your right to take EBT benefits. This comes with, or without, prior warnings and can appear at any time. The charging letter has a variety of allegations, but most of them will lay out serious allegations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. After 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.

After reviewing the store’s answer to the violation letter, the USDA might still believe that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, they’ll will issue another letter that outlines the agencies legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have ten days to appeal the verdict. If you don’t, then you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, we’ll file the legal papers to notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and we will draft draft the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is necessary to change the outcome of the violations.

If the USDA refuses to change the decision, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. The Judicial Appeal 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 grocery store retailer, there are many laws 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, 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 include fines and penalties. If you conduct a major SNAP violation, then you may end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, store owners don’t even know the violations are even happening. In many situations, it’s dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to discuss your case with a SNAP violation lawyer to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is sent to your store, you only have 10 days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently crush your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will generate a verdict even though you choose not to respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you cannot defend your store. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers can discredit the decision of the USDA and appeal any decision. The fines imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully imposes huge fines to curb 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 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 see if the grocery store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store that receives 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.