Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Lancaster Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then it’s possible have been the recipient of a a official warning from the USDA. This notice is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is stating you have violated the SNAP program. The USDA will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, which will have records of transactions that happened at your grocery store that the government is saying is in violation of one or more groups of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you should speak to our our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will terminate/suspend your stores ability to accept EBT.

About The SNAP Program

The SNAP program helps families with get food each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed to consumers with an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on the EBT card are not for general use, and they cannot be used for cash back services. The cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued in the state where the recipient lives. The program is operated on a nationwide level by the federal government.

This federal and it’s parameters 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’s a SNAP Violation

SNAP legal violations happen if and when a store violates any of the rules below.

The grocery store is accused ofthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting the benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

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

The grocery store redeemed more coupons than sale of actual food at the same time.

Your employees have taken SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t eligible to use the benefits.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

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

The charging letter is the first step which is taken by the USDA USDA to take away your right to take EBT benefits. This letter may come with no warning can come at any time. The charging letter will have allegations in it, 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.

Once the USDA reviews your answer to the violation letter, the USDA may still decide that a violation has occurred. If this happens, the USDA will 100% issue another letter which outlines their decision to suspend or disqualify the store based on the accusations previously mentioned. Like before, you have 10 days to appeal the verdict. If you don’t, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our law firm, we’ll file the legal papers to notify the USDA appeal the decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and our team will generate an appellate brief containing all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is necessary to change the outcome of the violations.

If 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 case, where you’ll have to do standard processes like discovery, file motions, and have a trial. Our law firm can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a food store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations you have to adhere to for 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 limits on how the funds can be used. For example, people getting SNAP benefits cant purchase electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If you conduct a serious SNAP violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores don’t even know SNAP violations were even happening. Often, dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation attorney in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is sent to your store, you only have ten days to respond to the claims. Your failure to respond will permanently crush your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will deliver 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. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers can discredit the decision of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The penalties imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose chooses to impose huge fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. The policy must be in writing at the store and the policy must be when the allegations were filed.

The retailer also be able to prove the compliance policy was in place before the charge, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA typically also looks in order to see if the owners benefited from the violations, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any owner that receives a 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.