Filing a Judicial Appeal Against a SNAP Disqualification

Disqualification from the USDA SNAP program is a serious situation. Once your EBT machine has been disconnected, your final resort for recourse is a Judicial Appeal. If this is the stage you have arrived at, you have passed the point of receiving and responding to a SNAP Violation Letter and have already been through the administrative appeal process at the USDA‘s Division of Administrative Review. This being the case, the Judicial Appeal is your last opportunity to turn around some of the damage that has already been inflicted on your business as a result of the allegations that were brought against you, and work to regain the EBT business you probably lost.

How Our Firm Can Become Your Advocate in Your USDA SNAP Case For Your Grocery Store

We have witnessed in our many years of practice so many grocers who opt to go with local attorneys to handle their USDA SNAP Violation problems. It is usually true that local general practitioners are genuinely interested in coming to the aid of their local store owners. Nevertheless, USDA SNAP administrative program is a highly particular and complex segment of the law that is unlike others. Attorneys who don’t have profound experience in this section of the law may make elementary errors in your SNAP case. They may not even have any understanding as to what they did wrong and you may not ever find out about it.

This firm’s lawyers have worked on such cases for a long time. Congress reauthorized the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in 2014. Since then, we made it our business to become the firm with the best cache of information about this novel legislation, so we are equipped to deal with every possible legal concern you may have with ease. We boast well experienced lawyers who have fought it out with numerous federal appeals of USDA SNAP disqualifications so much so that we quickly recognize the positions and strategies that the USDA frequently pulls out in the courtroom. On top of that, the store owners we represent can find it useful that we have an impressive track record of pinpointing with great accuracy the USDA‘s methods and stock arguments, and figuring out before our day in court where the USDA‘s case against them may have a hole in it.

There is only a small handful of firms in the United States legal field who are as skilled as we are in USDA SNAP legislation, and of these firms, our team has the most experience and allocates the greatest amount of resources into retailer representation by far.

An Commentary on The USDA SNAP Judicial Appeal

You have the right to file USDA SNAP Judicial Appeal on behalf of your grocery business. It is a lawsuit you can bring against the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) under 7 CFR §279 and 7 USC §2023 to appeal the Final Determination of the Administrative Review Division that your business needs to be permanently disqualified from SNAP (most often on account of SNAP trafficking charges). Judicial Appeals work exactly like other civil litigation cases. What distinguishes it is the unique complication of filing against the United States of America as the defendant.

The judicial appeal functions three stages:

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Legal Scenario: What Would You Do?

Scenario

After operating your corner grocery store for twelve years, you received a SNAP disqualification letter from the USDA alleging that your store engaged in trafficking benefits. You went through the entire administrative review process and lost, and now your store can no longer accept EBT payments, which represented nearly 40% of your revenue.

Is there anything left I can do to fight this SNAP disqualification after losing my administrative appeal?

Attorney's Answer

Yes — under Section 14 of the Food and Nutrition Act (7 U.S.C. § 2023), you have the right to file a judicial appeal in U.S. District Court within 30 days of receiving the final administrative decision. The court will conduct a trial de novo, meaning it reviews the evidence fresh rather than simply deferring to the USDA's findings, which gives you a genuine opportunity to challenge the government's case. We would scrutinize the FNS investigation methods, including any questionable EBT transaction patterns they relied upon, and present evidence of your store's legitimate operations. Time is critical because missing that 30-day filing window permanently waives your right to judicial review.

This is general information only. Contact us for advice specific to your situation.

Stage One – Plead

At this stage, we put a formal complaint in at the district court against the United States in whatever state your grocery store operates. Once we get the United States’ response to our allegations back (this takes sixty days). This comes as an Answer or a Motion to Dismiss, depending upon the specifics of our matter. This part of the process can take roughly eighty days in total, including the period for process service and customary procedural delays.

Stage Two – Discovery/Motions