Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Grapevine Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then may have received a official notice from the USDA. The letter is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is claiming you have violated the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, which will have records of transactions that occurred at your retail store that the government is saying violates one or more categories of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you should definitely speak to our our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you don’t respond, the USDA will suspend your grocery store’s ability to accept 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 benefits on the card cannot be used 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 where the recipient lives. This program is run on a national level by the federal government.

This program and it’s parameters are governed 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 if and when a store is in violation of the following rules.

The retail store was involved intrafficking SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting benefits, or theft of the benefits.

The retail store accepted SNAP benefits 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.

The grocery store took money for more EBT food stamps than food sales at the same time.

The employees of the store took 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 immense experience handling SNAP violation letters. Our law firm can handle your SNAP violation process in all phases of a SNAP Violation action.

Sending the letter is the first step taken by the USDA to take away your EBT license. This letter may come with, or without, prior warnings can come at any time. The violation letter has a variety of allegations, but most of them will outline violations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. Once you hire our law firm, our lawyers handle 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 violation letter, the USDA might still believe that a violation has occurred. If that happens, the USDA will definitely send a second letter which outlines their legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the accusations previously mentioned. Like before, you have ten days to appeal this decision. If you choose not to, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our firm, we’ll file the necessary paperwork to notify them we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and we will draft generate the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is critical to overturn the decision.

In the event the USDA refuses to overturn the decision, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This next phase is like a normal case, where you’ll be able to do 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 which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, many grocery store owners have no issues adhering to them. However, SNAP can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limits on how the funds can be used. For example, people getting SNAP benefits cant purchase electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If you conduct a serious violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, store owners didn’t know the violations are even happening. In many situations, unethical employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to consult with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is presented to your retail store, you only have ten days to respond to the violations. Your failure to respond to the violations will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will generate 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 will challenge the findings of the USDA and appeal any decision. The penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully chooses to impose huge fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. The policy has to be in writing and in effect at the time the allegations were filed.

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

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