Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Perth Amboy Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then it’s possible have received a official warning from the USDA. The letter is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is alleging you violated the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, which will have records of transactions that happened at your retail store that the USDA claims is in violation of one or more genres of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation letter, you should definitely contact our legal team. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you don’t respond, the USDA will terminate/suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT payments.

About The SNAP Program

This program provides families with funds to buy food each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed to consumers via an EBT card. The funds on the EBT card cannot be used for general use, and they can’t be used for cash back transactions. The cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued in the state where the recipient lives. The SNAP program is operated on a nationwide level by the government.

This program and it’s benefits 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’s a SNAP Violation

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

The store took part inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

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

The grocery store redeemed more coupons than food sales over the same period.

The employees of the store have taken SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t allowed to use them.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

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

The charging letter is the first step which is going to be taken by USDA to take away your right to take EBT benefits. This letter may come with, or without, prior warnings and can appear at any time. The SNAP violation letter contain details about alleged violations, but most letters will detail violations, with an attachment of details. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. 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 violation letter, the USDA might still believe that a violation has occurred. If that happens, they’ll will issue another letter which specifically states the governments decision to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the allegations set forth. Like before, you have ten days to appeal the decision. If you choose not to, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our lawyers, our team the necessary paperwork to notify them we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and we will draft draft an appellate brief which contains all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is necessary to fix the outcome.

If the USDA refuses to override the 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’s a lot of rules and regulations you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, many retail store owners don’t run into problems. 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 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 might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores don’t know the violations are even happening. Often, it’s dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to discuss your case with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is presented to your store, you only have ten days to respond to the claims. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will generate a verdict even though 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 will challenge the decision of the USDA and fight any penalties. The fines imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose imposes large fines to curb violations. The USDA will typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. The policy has to be in writing and the policy must be at the time the violations were filed.

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

We highly recommend any store 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.