Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Oregon Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then it’s possible have gotten a letter from the USDA. This notice is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is claiming you violated the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, and it will contain records of transactions that occurred at your retail store that the USDA is saying violates one or more categories of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you must speak to our our law firm. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you choose to ignore, the government will suspend your grocery store’s ability to accept EBT.

About The Program

The SNAP program helps families with funds to buy food each month. These benefits are distributed with an EBT card. The funds on the card cannot legally be used for general usage, and they cannot be used for fraudulent cash back services. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued in the state where the consumer lives. The SNAP program is operated on a nationwide level by the federal government.

This government and the benefits that come with it are under handled 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 happen when a grocery store is in violation of the rules below.

The grocery store took part intrafficking SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

Your store submitted false info on your store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

Your store redeemed more coupons than actual food sales during 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 immense experience managing SNAP violation letters. Our law firm can handle your SNAP violation process in all phases of a SNAP violation action.

The charging letter is the initial step which is taken by the USDA USDA to take away your right to take EBT benefits. The letter can come with, or without, prior warnings and can happen at any time. The violation letter will contain allegations, but most of them will lay out serious allegations, with an attachment of details. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. 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 SNAP violation letter, the USDA may still believe that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, the USDA will definitely send a second letter that specifically states the agencies legal verdict 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, then you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our law firm, our team the appeal and notify them appeal the decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and we will draft generate 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 override the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. The Judicial Appeal is like a normal federal court case, where you’ll have to do standard processes like 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 you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, many retail store owners don’t run into problems. However, USDA’s SNAP program can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, SNAP recipients cant purchase electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If it’s believed you did a serious violation, then you may end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, store owners don’t even know SNAP violations were even happening. Often, dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to discuss your case with a SNAP violation attorney in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is delivered to your store, you have only 10 days to respond to the allegations. Your failure to respond will permanently crush your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will make a verdict even though 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 the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers can challenge the findings of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The fines 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 will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. The policy must be in writing at the store and in effect when the violations were filed.

The grocery store must be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in place before the charge, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA typically also looks in order to see if the grocery store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any grocery store owner that gets a 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.