Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Fort Pierce Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then you might have gotten a official warning from the USDA. This letter is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is alleging you violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, and it will have records of transactions that happened at your grocery store that the USDA is saying is in violation of one or more groups of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you should definitely contact our law firm. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you don’t respond, the government will suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT payments.

About The SNAP Program

The SNAP program provides families with money each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed with an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on this card aren’t for general use, and they can’t be used for fraudulent cash back transactions. The cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued by each state individually where the consumer lives. The program is operated on a nationwide level by the government.

The federal and the benefits that come with it 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 violations happen when a store is in violation of the rules below.

The grocery store was involved inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

The store submitted incorrect information on your store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

Your store redeemed more EBT food stamps than actual food sales over the same period.

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

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

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

Sending the violation letter is the first step taken by the USDA to remove your EBT license. This comes with, or without, prior warnings and can happen at any time. The violation letter contain details about alleged violations, but most letters will lay out violations, with an attachment of details. You have only 10 days to respond. Once 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.

Once the USDA reviews your answer to the SNAP violation letter, the USDA may still believe that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, they’ll will issue another letter which outlines the governments legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the store based on the alleged violations. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you don’t, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our firm, we’ll file the legal papers to notify them we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and our team will draft the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is critical to fix the outcome.

If the USDA refuses to override the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. The Judicial Appeal is like a normal 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 food store retailer, there are many laws have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most cases, many grocery store owners have no issues adhering to them. However, SNAP can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, people getting SNAP benefits cant buy electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe fines. 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 are even occurring. Often, it’s dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP 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 charge letter is delivered to your grocery store, you only have 10 days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will make a verdict even though you don’t respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers can challenge the findings of the USDA and fight any penalties. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose chooses to impose huge fines to curb violations. The USDA will typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. The policy has to be in writing at the store and in effect when the violations were filed.

The store owner must 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 see if the grocery store owners benefited from the violations, or were aware of the violation. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any owner that gets a allegation letter consult 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.