Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Quincy Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then may have gotten a letter of warning from the USDA. This notice is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is alleging you violated the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, which will have records of transactions which happened at your retail store that the USDA claims is in violation of one or more categories of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you should 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 ability to take EBT.

About The Program

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

The government 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 counts as a SNAP violation

Snap violations occur when a store violates any of the rules below.

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

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

Your store submitted incorrect info on the grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

The store took money for more EBT food stamps than sale of actual food during the same period.

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

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

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

The charging letter is the initial step which is going to be taken by USDA to remove your EBT license. This comes with no warning can come at any time. The SNAP violation letter will have allegations in it, but most letters will detail violations, and have attached documents detailing 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 might still decide that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, they’ll will definitely send another letter which outlines the governments legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the allegations set forth. Like before, you have 10 days to appeal this verdict. If you choose not to, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our firm, we’ll file the legal papers to notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and we will draft generate the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to fix the outcome.

In the event the USDA refuses to change the binding decision, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This next phase is like a normal court case, where you’ll have to do standard processes like discovery, file motions, and have a trial. We 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 normal situations, many retail store owners have no issues adhering to them. However, USDA’s SNAP program can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limits on how the funds can be used. For example, people getting SNAP benefits cant buy electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can include fines and penalties. If you conduct a major violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, store owners didn’t know the violations are even happening. Often, dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is delivered to your retail store, you have only ten days to respond to the allegations. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will make a verdict even though you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will challenge the decision of the USDA and appeal any decision. The penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully chooses to impose huge fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. The policy must be in writing and in effect at the time the allegations were filed.

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

We highly recommend any grocery store owner that receives 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.