Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

North Charleston Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then it’s possible have received a letter of warning from the USDA. This notice is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is alleging you have violated the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, which will contain transactions which occurred at your retail store which the USDA is saying violates one or more genres of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you must speak to our our legal team. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you don’t respond, the government will terminate/suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT.

About The Program

The SNAP program helps families with funds to buy food each month. These benefits are given with an EBT card. The funds on the EBT card cannot be used for general use, and they can’t be used for fraudulent 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 operated on a nationwide level by the government.

The 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 legal violations occur if and when a retail store is in violation of the rules below.

The store was involved inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

The store submitted false info on your grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

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

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

How we can help defend you against a SNAP violation notice

Our law firm has immense experience managing SNAP violation letters. Our law firm can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP action.

Sending the violation letter is the initial step which is taken by the USDA USDA to remove your right to take EBT benefits. The letter can come with no warning can come at any time. The violation letter will contain allegations, but most of them will detail violations, with an attachment of details. 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 feel that a violation has occurred. If this happens, they’ll will issue another letter that outlines their legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have ten days to appeal this decision. If you don’t, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our firm, our team the necessary paperwork to notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and we will draft generate an appellate brief containing all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is necessary to fix the outcome.

In the event the USDA refuses to change the legal decision, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This process is like a normal federal court case, where you’ll be able to do discovery, file motions, and have a trial. We 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 retail store owners don’t run into problems. However, the SNAP program can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, SNAP recipients cant get electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can include fines and penalties. If you conduct a serious SNAP violation, then you may end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, store owners don’t know the violations were even occurring. In many situations, it’s dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation lawyer to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is delivered to your store, you have only 10 days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Your failure to respond to the violations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will make a verdict even if you don’t 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 appeal any penalties. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose does huge fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. It has to be in writing and in effect at the time the allegations were filed.

The retailer must 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 to check 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.

It’s highly recommended any store 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.