Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

North Port Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then it’s possible have gotten a notice from the USDA. This notification 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 that occurred at your retail store that the government is saying violates one or more genres of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you must speak to our our law firm. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you choose to ignore, the government will terminate/suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT payments.

About The Program

The SNAP program provides families with money each month. The SNAP program benefits are given through an EBT card. The funds on this card cannot be used for general usage, and they cannot be used for cash back services. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued in the state where the consumer lives. This program is operated on a national level by the federal government.

The federal and it’s benefits are under handled by the US Code and the Code of Federal Regulations. The USDA FNS agency enforces the regulations and runs the program.

What does it mean to have a SNAP violation

Snap violations happen when a retail store is in violation of the following rules.

The grocery store is accused oftrafficking SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

The store submitted incorrect info on the grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

The store redeemed more EBT food stamps than food sales at the same time.

The employees of the store 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 handling SNAP appeals letters. Our team of attorneys can handle your SNAP violation process in all 3 phases of a SNAP Violation action.

The charging letter is the initial step taken by the USDA to remove your right to take EBT benefits. The letter can come with no warning can come at any time. The SNAP violation letter has a variety of allegations, but most of them will mention serious allegations, have evidence attached proving the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. After you hire our law firm, our lawyers take into their hands 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 may still believe that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, the USDA will issue a second letter that outlines the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the allegations set forth. Like before, you have ten days to protest the decision. If you don’t, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our law firm, our team the appeal and notify them we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and our team will draft an appellate brief which contains all of the case law, evidence, etc. which is necessary to fix the outcome.

In the event the USDA refuses to override 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 federal court case, where you’ll be able to do 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 which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, many retail 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 limits on how the funds can be used. For example, SNAP recipients cant purchase electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe fines. If you conduct a major violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, store owners didn’t even know the violations are even happening. Often, it’s dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to consult with a SNAP violation attorney in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is sent to your retail store, you have only 10 days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Failure to respond will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will generate a verdict even though you choose not to respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you cannot defend your store. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will fight the findings of the USDA and fight any decision. 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 the policy must be at the time the violations were filed.

The retailer also be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in place before the charge, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA typically also looks to check if the retail store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or were aware of the violation. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any owner that gets a violation letter speak to 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.