Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Roseville Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then you might have gotten a letter from the USDA. This notice is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you are in violation of the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, which will have transactions which occurred at your retail store which the USDA claims 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 law firm. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the government will terminate/suspend your grocery store’s ability to take EBT.

About The SNAP Program

The SNAP program provides families with money each month. These benefits are distributed to consumers with an EBT card. The funds on the card cannot be used for general use, and they cannot be used for fraudulent cash back transactions. The EBT cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued in the state where the recipient lives. The program is run on a nationwide level by the federal government.

The program and the benefits that come with it 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 retail store is in violation of the rules below.

The store is accused ofthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

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

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

Your employees took SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t allowed to use them.

How to defend your store against a SNAP violation

Our law firm has immense experience handling SNAP violations letters. Our team of attorneys can handle your SNAP violation process in all phases of a SNAP violation action.

Sending the letter is the first step taken by the USDA to take away your EBT license. This letter may come with no warning and can happen at any time. The violation letter has a variety of allegations, but most letters will mention serious allegations, have evidence attached proving the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. After 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 feel that your store has violated the rules. If this happens, they’ll will 100% issue another letter which outlines the governments decision to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the accusations previously mentioned. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you choose not to, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our firm, we’ll file the necessary paperwork to notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and we will draft generate an appellate brief which contains all of the case law, evidence, etc. which is necessary to overturn the decision.

If the USDA refuses to change the binding decision, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. The Judicial Appeal 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 are many laws which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, many retail store owners have no problems adhering to them. 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 result in 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, store owners didn’t even know SNAP violations are even happening. In many situations, dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation lawyer in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is sent to your grocery store, you only have 10 days to respond to the violations. Failure to respond will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will deliver a verdict even if 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 a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will discredit the findings of the USDA and fight any decision. The fines imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully chooses to impose large fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. It has to be in writing at the store and in effect when the allegations were filed.

The grocery store also 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 typically also looks in order to check if the retail store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any store 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.