Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Paramount Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then you might have gotten a official notice from the USDA. This notification is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is claiming you have violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, and it will have transactions that occurred at your retail store that the USDA claims is in violation of one or more groups of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you should definitely contact our law firm. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will terminate/suspend your stores ability to accept EBT payments.

About The Program

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

The SNAP federal and the benefits that come with it 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 violations happen when a store is in violation of the following rules.

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

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

Your store submitted false information on the retail stores application to accept EBT benefits.

The grocery store took money for more coupons than food sales during the same period.

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

How we can help defend you against a SNAP violation notice

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

Sending the letter is the first step taken by the USDA to remove your EBT license. This comes with no warning and can happen at any time. The violation letter contain details about alleged violations, but most of them will detail serious allegations, have evidence attached proving the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. After you hire our law firm, we handle 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 SNAP violation letter, the USDA may still believe that a violation has occurred. If this happens, the USDA will definitely send another letter that outlines the agencies legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the allegations set forth. Like before, you have ten days to appeal the decision. If you don’t, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, we’ll file the legal papers to notify them appeal the decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and our team will generate the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the case law, evidence, etc. which is critical to overturn the decision.

In the event the USDA refuses to override the decision, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. The Judicial Appeal 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’s a lot of rules and regulations have to obey in order to accept 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 buy electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in fines, and penalties. If it’s believed you did a serious SNAP violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores didn’t even know the violations are even happening. In many situations, it’s dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to discuss your case with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is presented to your grocery store, you only have ten days to respond to the claims. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will generate a verdict even though you choose not to respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you cannot defend your store. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our SNAP appeals lawyers can challenge the decision of the USDA and fight any penalties. The penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose does large fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. The policy must be in writing and in effect when the violations were filed.

The retailer must be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in existence before the allegations, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA typically also looks in order to see if the grocery store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store that gets a violation 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.