Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Vancouver Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then you might have gotten a official warning from the USDA. The notification is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is claiming you are in violation of the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, and it will contain transactions that occurred at your store that the government claims violates one or more groups of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you should contact 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 payments.

About The Program

The SNAP program helps families with funds to buy food each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed via an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on the EBT card aren’t for general use, and they can’t be used for cash back transactions. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued by each state individually where the recipient lives. The program is run on a national level by the government.

The SNAP program and it’s benefits are governed by the US 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 if and when a store is in violation of the following rules.

The retail store is accused oftrafficking 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.

Your store redeemed more coupons than sale of actual food at the same time.

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

How we can help defend you against a SNAP violation notice

Our law firm has experience handling SNAP violations letters. We can handle your SNAP violation process in all 3 phases of a SNAP Violation action.

The charging letter is the initial step which is taken by the USDA USDA to remove your EBT license. This comes with no warning and can happen at any time. The charging letter will have allegations in it, but most of them will mention serious allegations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. After you hire our law firm, our lawyers take into their hands all of the communicationswith the USDA and for compiling all the necessary evidence, and drafting a response to the USDA.

After reviewing the store’s answer to the SNAP violation letter, the USDA might still believe that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, the USDA will 100% issue another letter that specifically states their legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have 10 days to appeal this decision. If you choose not to, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our firm, our team the appeal and notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and we will draft draft an appellate brief which contains all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is needed to overturn the decision.

In the event the USDA refuses to overturn the decision, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This process is like a normal case, where you’ll be able to do discovery, file motions, and have a trial. Our lawyers can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a grocery store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most normal situations, 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 limits on how the funds can be used. For example, SNAP recipients cant buy electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If it’s believed you did a major SNAP violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, store owners don’t know the violations are even happening. Often, dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT 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 sent to your retail store, you only have ten days to respond to the claims. Your failure to respond to the violations will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will generate a verdict even if you don’t respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you cannot defend your store. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our lawyers can challenge the decision of the USDA and fight any penalties. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose imposes huge 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 at the store and in effect at the time the allegations were filed.

The store owner must be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in existence before the allegations, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA will also look in order 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.

It’s highly recommended any store owner that gets a violation letter speak to with a SNAP violation attorney. Choosing not to respond 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.