You worked for the post office for 38 years. You have about as much connection to the private sector as Obama does. You’ve never run a small business and I am pretty sure you weren’t running a law practice on the side while you working for the post office. So spare me the advice about consulting with attorneys whenever you have the federal gov’t sticking its nose into every nook and cranny of one’s business.
You people just don't know.
I said the guy should get a lawyer that specialized in that agency and the rabbit farmer did so.
I'd advise someone tagged with a $1 million bill by USPS to get a lawyer who knows Postal procedures for dealing with "deficiencies".
Interestingly enough MOST of my years at the USPS and earlier the Post Office Department were spent dealing directly with small and medium size businesses regarding how they were going to budget to deal with coming postal increases, or changes in printing technology, or whether or not there were any particular mail preparation rules for direct mail advertising that would be of value to them.
Let me suggest that your breadth of contact with small and medium sized business is not sufficient for you to even begin to understand what the other guys in a wide variety of industries and trades are up to.
So, have I run a small business? Well, yeah ~ several. And law? I had to learn enough law to engage in my work, and that turned out to be an awful lot.
My advice to you ~ simple, go ahead and engage in a business or trade and get a piece of mail from the US Government or whatever state you live in, and IGNORE IT.
That's right, IGNORE those letters.
Just government agents trying to sneak in and steal your stuff. Yup. That's all it is ~ a ginormous conspiracy by federal bureaucrats trying to trap you.