Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Visalia Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then may have gotten a letter of warning from the USDA. This letter is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is stating you are in violation of the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, which will have records of transactions which happened at your retail store which the government is saying is in violation of one or more groups of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation letter, you should contact our law firm. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you don’t respond, the USDA will suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT payments.

About The Program

This program helps families with get food each month. These benefits are distributed to consumers via an EBT card. The funds on the card are not for general use, and they cannot be used for fraudulent cash back services. The cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued by each state individually where the consumer lives. The SNAP program is operated on a national level by the 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 counts as a SNAP violation

Snap violations happen if and when a retail store violates any of the rules below.

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

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

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

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

The employees of the store 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 experience managing SNAP violation letters. We can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all phases of a SNAP action.

The charging letter is the initial step which is going to be taken by USDA to remove your EBT license. The letter can come with, or without, prior warnings and can appear at any time. The SNAP violation letter will contain allegations, but most letters will lay out violations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. After you hire our law firm, we 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 a violation has occurred. If that happens, they’ll will definitely send a second letter that specifically states their decision to suspend or disqualify the store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have 10 days to appeal this decision. If you don’t, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our law firm, we file the legal papers to notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and our team will generate the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to fix the outcome.

If the USDA refuses to change the legal 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 be able to do discovery, file motions, and have a trial. Our attorneys can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a food store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, many grocery store owners have no issues adhering to them. However, SNAP can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, people getting SNAP benefits cant get electronic goods. If, and when, you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in fines, and penalties. If you conduct a major SNAP violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, store owners don’t know SNAP violations were even happening. Often, dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to consult with a SNAP violation lawyer to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is sent to your grocery store, you have only ten days to respond to the allegations. Failure to respond will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will generate a verdict even though you don’t 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 lawyers can discredit the findings of the USDA and fight any penalties. The penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully chooses to impose large fines to curb 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 at the time the allegations were filed.

The store owner 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 will also look to check if the grocery store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or were aware of the violation. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any store 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.