Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Pompano Beach Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then it’s possible have been the recipient of a a official notice from the USDA. This notice is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is alleging you have violated the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, which will contain records of 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 letter, you should definitely contact our legal team. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will suspend your stores privilege to take EBT.

About The SNAP Program

The SNAP program provides families with a certain amount of money each month. These benefits are given with an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on the card cannot be used for general use, and they can’t be used for cash back services. The cards took the place of 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 government.

The SNAP government 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’s a SNAP Violation

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

The retail store is accused oftrafficking SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

The store submitted incorrect info on the store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

The store redeemed more EBT food stamps than sale of actual food at the same time.

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 team of attorneys can handle your SNAP violation process in all 3 phases of a SNAP action.

The charging letter is the first step which is taken by the USDA USDA to remove your EBT license. This comes with, or without, prior warnings and can happen at any time. The violation letter contain details about alleged violations, but most letters will detail violations, with an attachment of details. 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 notice of violation, the USDA might still feel that your store has violated the rules. If this happens, the USDA will issue a second letter which outlines the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the store based on the accusations previously mentioned. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you don’t, then you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our law firm, we file the appeal and notify the USDA appeal the decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and our team will draft an appellate brief containing all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is necessary to fix the outcome.

If the USDA refuses to change the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers 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 are many laws 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, people getting SNAP benefits cant purchase electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If you conduct a major violation, then you may end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores didn’t know SNAP violations are even occurring. In many situations, it’s dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to speak with a SNAP violation attorney in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is delivered to your store, you only have 10 days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently crush your store. If you don’t respond 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. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our lawyers will discredit the decision of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The financial penalties imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose chooses to impose large fines to curb violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. It has to be in writing at the store and the policy must be at the time the violations were filed.

The grocery store must has to be able to prove the compliance policy was in existence before the allegations, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA will also look in order to check if the retail store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store that receives a violation letter speak to 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.