Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Oro Valley Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then you might have been the recipient of a a official notice from the USDA. The notice is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is stating you have violated the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, and it will contain records of transactions which happened at your grocery store that the government is saying is in violation of one or more categories of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation letter, you should definitely speak to our our law firm. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the government will terminate/suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT payments.

About The Program

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

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

SNAP legal violations occur when a retail store is in violation of the following rules.

The store is accused ofthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

Your store submitted false information on the store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

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

Your employees accepted SNAP benefits from someone who shouldn’t be allowed to use the benefits.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Our law firm has experience handling SNAP appeals letters. We can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all phases of a SNAP Violation action.

The charging letter is the initial step which is taken by the USDA USDA to remove your right to take EBT benefits. This comes with no warning can come at any time. The SNAP violation letter will have allegations in it, but most of them will lay out violations, have evidence attached proving the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. Once 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 notice of violation, the USDA might still decide that your store has violated the rules. If this happens, the USDA will 100% issue another letter which specifically states their decision to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have ten days to appeal the verdict. If you choose not to, then you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our law firm, we’ll file the necessary paperwork to notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and we will draft generate an appellate brief which contains all of the case law, evidence, etc. which is needed to change the outcome of the violations.

If the USDA refuses to override the legal decision, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This next phase 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 grocery store retailer, there are many laws have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most cases, many grocery store owners have no issues adhering to them. However, SNAP can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, SNAP recipients cant purchase electronic goods. 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 either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, store owners don’t even know the violations were even occurring. Often, it’s dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to consult with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is delivered to your retail store, you only have ten days to respond to the allegations. Failure to respond will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will deliver a verdict even if you don’t 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 can challenge the findings of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose imposes huge fines to curb violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. It has to be in writing and in effect when the allegations were filed.

The retailer also 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 check if the retail store owners benefited from the violations, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any store that gets a allegation 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.