Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

San Bernardino Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then may have gotten a notice from the USDA. The notification is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is alleging you have violated the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, which will have records of transactions which happened at your grocery store which the USDA is saying violates one or more groups of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you should definitely 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 terminate/suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT.

About The Program

The SNAP program helps families with get food each month. These benefits are given via an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on the card cannot legally be used for general usage, and they can’t be used for cash back transactions. The cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued by each state individually where the consumer lives. This program is run on a national level by the federal government.

The SNAP federal and it’s parameters are governed by the US 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 if and when a store violates any of the following rules.

The retail store took part inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting benefits, or theft of the benefits.

The retail store took 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.

Your grocery store redeemed more EBT food stamps than food sales during the same period.

The employees of the store accepted SNAP benefits from an unauthorized person who isn’t allowed to use the benefits.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

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

Sending the letter is the first step which is going to be taken by USDA to remove your right to take EBT benefits. The letter can come with, or without, prior warnings can come at any time. The violation letter contain details about alleged violations, but most of them will lay out violations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. 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 violation letter, the USDA might still decide that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, the USDA will 100% issue another letter that outlines the governments legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the allegations set forth. Like before, you have ten days to appeal this verdict. If you choose not to, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our law firm, we file the necessary paperwork and notify the government appeal the decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and we will draft generate an appellate brief containing all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is necessary to fix the outcome.

In the event the USDA refuses to change the decision, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal 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. 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 cases, many grocery 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 get electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in fines, and penalties. If you conduct a serious SNAP violation, then you may end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, store owners didn’t know the violations are even occurring. Often, unethical employees who are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation lawyer to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is presented to your store, you only have ten days to respond to the violations. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently harm your store. In addition, 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 won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will fight the decision of the USDA and appeal any decision. The fines imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully does large fines to curb violations. The USDA will typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. The policy must be in writing and the policy must be at the time the allegations were filed.

The retailer also be able to prove the compliance policy was in place before the charge, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA will also look in order 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 owner that receives a violation 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.