Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Porterville Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then may have been the recipient of a a official warning from the USDA. The letter is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is stating you are in violation of the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, which will contain transactions that occurred at your store that the government is saying is in violation of one or more categories of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you must speak to our our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you don’t respond, the government will suspend your stores ability to accept EBT.

About The SNAP Program

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

The SNAP federal and it’s parameters 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 does it mean to have a SNAP violation

SNAP legal violations happen when a store violates any of the following rules.

The retail store took part intrafficking 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.

Your store submitted false information on your grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

The grocery store redeemed 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 to defend your store against a SNAP violation

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

Sending the violation letter is the first step taken by the USDA to remove your EBT license. The letter can come with no warning and can happen at any time. The SNAP violation letter has a variety of allegations, but most of them will mention violations, with an attachment of details. You have only 10 days to respond. Once you hire our law firm, we take into their hands 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 may still feel that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, they’ll will issue a second letter that specifically states the governments decision to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the accusations previously mentioned. Like before, you have ten days to protest this verdict. If you don’t, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our firm, we file the necessary paperwork and notify the government appeal the decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and our team will generate the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to change the outcome of the violations.

If the USDA refuses to override the decision, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. The Judicial Appeal is like a normal court case, where you’ll have to do standard processes like 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 have no problems adhering to them. However, SNAP 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 get electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If you conduct a major violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, store owners don’t even know SNAP violations were even occurring. Often, it’s dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to consult with a SNAP violation attorney 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 10 days to respond to the violations. Your failure to respond to the violations will permanently harm 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 won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers can fight the findings of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The penalties imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully does huge fines to curb violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. The policy must be in writing at the store and the policy must be at the time the allegations were filed.

The store owner must be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in place before the charge, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA will also look to check if the retail store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or were aware of the violation. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any owner 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.