Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Hackensack Snap Violation Lawyers

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

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you must speak to our our law firm. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will suspend your stores ability to accept EBT payments.

About The SNAP Program

This program helps families with a certain amount of money each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed to consumers with an EBT card. The benefits on the card cannot legally be used for general usage, and they cannot be used for fraudulent cash back transactions. The cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued in the state which the SNAP participant lives. The SNAP program is operated on a national level by the government.

The SNAP government and it’s benefits 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 when a store violates any of the following rules.

The store took part intrafficking 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.

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

The store took money for more EBT food stamps than food sales over the same period.

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. We can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all phases of a SNAP action.

Sending the letter is the initial step which is taken by the USDA USDA to take away your right to take EBT benefits. The letter can come with, or without, prior warnings and can happen at any time. The charging letter contain details about alleged violations, but most of them will detail violations, with an attachment of details. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. After 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 feel that a violation has occurred. If that happens, they’ll will issue a second 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 verdict. If you don’t, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our firm, we’ll file the necessary paperwork and notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and our team will generate the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is necessary to change the outcome of the violations.

In the event the USDA refuses to override the decision, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This next phase is like a normal federal court 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 grocery store retailer, there are many laws have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most cases, many retail store owners don’t run into problems. 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 probably get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe fines. If you conduct a serious SNAP violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, store owners don’t even know SNAP violations were even occurring. Often, dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to discuss your case with a SNAP violation attorney to ensure 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 allegations. Failure to respond to the violations will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will deliver a verdict even though you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you cannot defend your store. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will fight the findings of the USDA and fight any penalties. The penalties imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully does large fines to in order to curb future 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 at the time the allegations were filed.

The retailer must 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 check if the grocery store owners benefited from the violations, or were aware of the violation. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any grocery store owner that gets a violation 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.