Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Minnetonka Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then may have been the recipient of a a official notice from the USDA. The notice is probably 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 contain transactions which happened at your retail store which the government claims violates one or more categories of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you should definitely 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 accept EBT.

About The Program

This program provides families with a certain amount of money each month. The SNAP program benefits are given through an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on this card are not for general use, and they cannot be used for cash back transactions. The cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued in the state where the consumer lives. The SNAP program is run on a nationwide level by the government.

This federal and it’s parameters 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 does it mean to have a SNAP violation

Snap violations occur if and when a retail store is in violation of the following rules.

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

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

Your store submitted false information on the store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

The grocery store took money for more coupons than actual food sales over the same period.

The employees of the store accepted 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. We can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP action.

Sending the violation letter is the initial step which is taken by the USDA USDA to take away your EBT license. This comes with no warning and can appear at any time. The violation letter will contain allegations, but most letters will lay out serious allegations, with an attachment of details. You have only 10 days to respond. After 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 feel that a violation has occurred. If this happens, the USDA will 100% issue another letter that outlines the governments decision to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have 10 days to protest the verdict. If you don’t, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our law firm, our team the necessary paperwork and notify them appeal the decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and our team will draft the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is critical to change the outcome of the violations.

In the event the USDA refuses to overturn 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 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 food 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 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. If you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can include fines and penalties. If you conduct a serious violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores don’t know SNAP violations are even happening. In many situations, it’s dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to discuss your case with a SNAP violation lawyer in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is presented to your retail store, you have only ten days to respond to the claims. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will make a verdict even if you choose not to respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you cannot defend your store. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will challenge 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 on purpose chooses to impose large fines to curb violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. The policy must be in writing and in effect when the allegations were filed.

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

We highly recommend any 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.