Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Lehi Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then may have received a notice from the USDA. This notice is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is stating you have violated the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, and it will contain records of transactions which occurred at your store that the USDA is saying violates one or more groups of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you should speak to our 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 ability to accept EBT.

About The SNAP Program

The SNAP program helps families with a certain amount of money each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed with an EBT card. The funds on this card cannot legally be used for general usage, and they cannot be used for cash back transactions. The cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued by each state individually where the recipient lives. The program is run on a nationwide level by the federal government.

This federal and it’s benefits 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 occur when a retail store is in violation of the following rules.

The store is accused oftrafficking SNAP benefits. This can mean 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 incorrect info on your grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

The store redeemed more coupons than food sales 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 managing SNAP appeals letters. Our team of attorneys can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all phases of a SNAP action.

Sending the violation letter is the initial step taken by the USDA to remove your EBT license. The letter can come with, or without, prior warnings and can happen at any time. The violation letter will have allegations in it, but most letters will lay out violations, have evidence attached proving the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. 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.

After reviewing the store’s answer to the violation letter, the USDA might still feel that a violation has occurred. If this happens, they’ll will issue a second letter that specifically states their decision to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have ten days to appeal this verdict. If you choose not to, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, we’ll file the necessary paperwork and notify them appeal the decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and our team will draft the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is necessary to change the outcome of the violations.

If the USDA refuses to change the binding decision, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This process is like a normal federal 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 which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, many grocery store owners have no problems adhering to them. However, USDA’s SNAP program 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 should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe fines. If it’s believed you did a major violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores didn’t even know SNAP violations were even happening. In many situations, dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is sent to your retail store, you only have 10 days to respond to the violations. Your failure to respond to the allegations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will make a verdict even though you choose not to respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers can 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 huge fines to curb violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. It must be in writing at the store and the policy must be when the allegations were filed.

The retailer must has to be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in existence before the allegations, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA will also look to see if the owners benefited from the violations, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any owner that receives a allegation 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.