Filing a Judicial Appeal Against a SNAP Disqualification
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:
- 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: All evidence that will benefit the case is collected and used to assemble the motions that we are going to employ to put forth your case or potentially (in a number of cases) get a resolution in a more abbreviated period of time. We can use the following motions:
- a Motion to Abate Disqualification – Our attempt to overturn your suspension during the litigation time frame and
- a Motion for Summary Judgment – Asking the Court to consider the undisputed evidence and enter an order in our favor on the basis of the pleadings (This can be handy in getting a quick conclusion to the case).
- Stage Three – Trial: The culmination of all of the work that went into your matter since the day the SNAP Violation letter appeared in the mail. Even though these trials do not have juries (a jury is not permitted for these trials under the United States Code), a judge will hear your case in the same manner and procedure in which all other tyes of trials occur. All the details of your store or market and the accusations that the USDA made are examined by the judge to assist the court in reaching a verdict as to whether or not the USDA successfully proved that you violated SNAP legislation at your place of business.
What Happens Next?
If the judicial appeal yields us an unfavorable result, a shop owner can appeal their decision to the circuit court of appeals where appellate judges can review the details, the decision entered by the judge on the Judicial Appeal and the procedure through which your EBT license was revoked. If the circuit court of appeals does not agree with our position, or if the appellate court chooses to uphold the whole disqualification or suspension, then we can go as high as the United States Supreme Court.
In reality, most of our SNAP cases never make it to the circuit court of appeals. Regardless of that fact, our firm will always properly advise you of all your means of recourse throughout our representation in a meaningful and thorough manner. For example, if you sold Cabernet, then we’ll tell you that you might lose the case.
Hire Our Firm for your SNAP Judicial Appeal
You should act fast before your options are exhausted! Mere days could be all you have until your deadline to appeal expires, so move quickly to get in touch with us to set up a consultation.