Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Florida Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then it’s possible have received a official notice from the USDA. The notification is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is stating you violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, which will have records of transactions that occurred at your store that the government claims is in violation of one or more genres of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you should contact our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the government will terminate/suspend your grocery store’s ability to accept EBT payments.

About The SNAP Program

The SNAP program provides families with money each month. These benefits are distributed via an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on the card cannot be used for general use, and they cannot be used for fraudulent cash back services. The cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued by each state individually where the recipient lives. The SNAP program is operated on a nationwide level by the federal government.

The SNAP program and it’s benefits 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 violations occur when a grocery store is in violation of the following rules.

The grocery store took part inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or stealing the benefits.

The grocery store accepted SNAP benefits 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.

The grocery store took money for 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.

How we can help defend you against a SNAP violation notice

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

Sending the violation letter is the initial step which is taken by the USDA USDA to remove your right to take EBT benefits. The letter can come with, or without, prior warnings can come at any time. The SNAP violation letter will contain allegations, but most of them will lay out violations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. 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 notice of violation, the USDA might still feel that a violation has occurred. If this happens, they’ll will issue another letter that specifically states the governments legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the 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 firm, we’ll file the appeal to notify them appeal the decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and our team will generate the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is critical 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. This process is like a normal federal court case, where you’ll be able to do discovery, file motions, and have a trial. Our attorneys 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 normal situations, many grocery store owners don’t run into problems. However, SNAP 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 it’s believed you did a major SNAP violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, store owners didn’t know the violations were even occurring. Often, it’s dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to discuss your case with a SNAP violation lawyer to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is presented to your retail store, you have only 10 days to respond to the violations. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently crush your store. In addition, 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 a fighting change. Our lawyers will challenge the findings of the USDA and appeal any decision. The financial penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose does 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 the policy must be when the allegations were filed.

The grocery store also be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in place before the charge, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA typically also looks in order to see if the 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.

It’s highly recommended any owner 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.