Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Pueblo Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then may have received a letter of warning from the USDA. This notification is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is claiming you violated the SNAP program. The USDA will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, and it will contain transactions that occurred at your retail store that the government is saying violates one or more groups of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you must speak to our our law firm. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will terminate/suspend your grocery store’s ability to take EBT.

About The Program

The SNAP program helps families with funds to buy food each month. These benefits are given through an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on this card cannot be used for general use, and they can’t be used for fraudulent cash back services. The cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued in the state which the SNAP participant lives. This program is operated on a nationwide level by the federal government.

The SNAP program and the benefits that come with it are under handled 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 occur when a store is in violation of the rules below.

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.

Your store submitted incorrect information on your retail stores application to accept EBT benefits.

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

The employees of the store accepted 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 experience managing SNAP violations letters. We 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 right to take EBT benefits. The letter can come with, or without, prior warnings can come at any time. The SNAP violation letter has a variety of allegations, but most letters will outline serious allegations, 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.

Once the USDA reviews your answer to the notice of violation, the USDA may still believe that a violation has occurred. If this happens, the USDA will 100% issue another letter that specifically states their decision to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the accusations previously mentioned. Like before, you have ten days to appeal this verdict. If you don’t, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our law firm, we’ll file the necessary paperwork to notify them appeal the decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and we will draft draft the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is critical to fix the outcome.

In the event the USDA refuses to change the legal decision, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal 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 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 which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, many grocery store owners have no issues adhering to them. However, the SNAP program can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, SNAP recipients cant get electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe fines. If it’s believed you did a major violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores don’t even know the violations were even occurring. In many situations, dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation attorney in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is presented to your grocery store, you have only ten days to respond to the violations. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will make a verdict even though you choose not to respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will fight the findings of the USDA and appeal any decision. The penalties imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose imposes 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 at the store and the policy must be at the time the allegations were filed.

The grocery store also be able to prove the compliance policy was in place before the charge, 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 business owners were aware of the fraud. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store that gets a allegation 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.