Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Fontana Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then it’s possible have received a letter from the USDA. This notification is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is claiming you have violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, which will contain transactions which happened at your store that the USDA claims is in violation of one or more groups of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you must contact our legal team. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will suspend your stores ability to accept EBT.

About The Program

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

The government and the benefits that come with it are under handled by the United States 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 violations happen when a store is in violation of the rules below.

The grocery store is accused ofthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

Your store submitted false information on your grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

The store took money for more coupons than sale of actual food over the same period.

The employees of the store have taken 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 violation letter is the initial step which is going to be taken by USDA to remove your right to take EBT benefits. The letter can come with, or without, prior warnings and can happen at any time. The violation letter has a variety of allegations, but most of them will mention serious allegations, 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.

After reviewing the store’s answer to the notice of violation, the USDA might still believe that a violation has occurred. If this happens, the USDA will issue another letter that specifically states their legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have ten days to appeal the decision. If you don’t, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our lawyers, our team the appeal to notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and our team will draft the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to overturn the decision.

In the event the USDA refuses to overturn the binding decision, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. The Judicial Appeal is like a normal court case, where you’ll have to do standard processes like 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 which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, 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. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe fines. If you conduct a major violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores didn’t even know the violations are even happening. In many situations, dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to consult with a SNAP violation attorney to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is presented to your grocery store, you have only ten days to respond to the allegations. Your failure to respond will permanently crush your store. If you don’t respond 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. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers can discredit the decision of the USDA and fight any penalties. The financial penalties imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully chooses to impose large fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. It has to be in writing and the policy must be when the violations were filed.

The retailer also 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 to see if the owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any grocery store owner that receives a 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.