Alcohol Attorney Needed in the LA, CA

[Mash]

We need an Attorney or advisor to get a field agent to do his job. A new distributor in LA has been held up for 60 days due to a simple address change on a previously approved permit. We have product pre-sold and product waiting to ship. The TTB office states "No one can work on the other than the assigned agent." The agent has not responded to emails or phone calls.....My CA friends need help.

[gordon]

Craig B. Rashkis

Attorney at Law

FARWELL RASHKIS, LLP

18 Park Avenue

Los Gatos, CA 95030

Tel: (408) 399-0505

Fax: (408) 399-4321

www.farwellrashkis.com

[Mash]

My California friends will contact you today or Monday Latest.

Thank you,

Scott

[Red Mountain Distilling]

If u are dealing with the TTB. Don't WASTE your money on an attorney. Be persistent. Call, call again. Ask for supervisors. Call your federal Congressmen. Just my 2 cents from past experience.

[dhdunbar]

I assume that you are dealing the National Revenue Center. The "agent" language seems strange. There are specialists there who handle address changes and I cannot imagine that it has been assigned to a field officer.

Although the regulations use change of address to mean a change in the physical location of a DSP, the NRC makes a distinction between a change of location and a change of address. To the NRC, a change of address is a change in the post office address assigned to an unchanged physical location. A change of location is a move of the business from one location to another.

Here are the rules:

§1.29 Individual plant or premises - An application for a basic permit must be filed, and permit issued, to cover each individual plant or premises where any of the businesses specified in section 103 of the Act is engaged in.

§1.41 Change of address. In the event of a change in address the permittee must file application Form 5100.18 for an amended basic permit.

The "paper" form of the application includes the following instruction; In general, criminal or admiistrative actions may be taken against persons operating without a valid FAA Act permit. Before you conduct any operations with any change specified in items 4 through 7 (a change in post office address and a change in physical location are found in item 6) you must apply for, and receive, an approved permit.

That said, there are no security requirements, as there are with DSPs, so there is absolutely nothing for the specialist to do but verify that the address exists, rubber stamp the application, make whatever changes are necessary to the database, and prepare the new forms. It what you describe is correct, delays of the sort you describe are unnecessary and, unjustified. they constitute an unconscionable burden on the wholesalers ability to do business, etc.

But I agree, don't hire an attorney at $300 an hour to handle this. Call TTB and say we are going to hire an attorney and are going to write our congressman, but, before we do you either, we want to give TTB one more chance to approve the application without further delay.

Have the wholesaler PM me if there is no satisfaction. I consult for a fee, but I'll talk about this for nothing as long as we keep it to 10 minutes are so. I've spent more than that already :-). Ten more minutes should suffice.