Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Nevada Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then may have received a letter from the USDA. This notification is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you have violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, and it will have records of transactions which happened at your store that the government is saying is in violation of one or more genres of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you must contact our law firm. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you choose to ignore, the government will suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT.

About The Program

This program provides families with get food each month. These benefits are distributed to consumers through an EBT card. The benefits on the EBT card cannot be used for general use, and they cannot be used for fraudulent cash back transactions. The cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued by each state individually where the consumer lives. The SNAP program is operated on a national level by the government.

The SNAP program 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 does it mean to have a SNAP violation

SNAP legal violations occur when a store violates any of the following rules.

The grocery store is accused ofthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

The grocery store took SNAP benefits in exchange for nonfood items like alcohol, tobacco, or other goods.

Your store submitted false info on the grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

Your grocery store redeemed more EBT food stamps than sale of actual food at the same time.

Your employees accepted SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t eligible to use the benefits.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Spodek Law Group has immense experience handling SNAP violations letters. Our team of attorneys can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP violation action.

Sending the letter is the initial step which is taken by the USDA USDA to take away your right to take EBT benefits. This comes with no warning and can happen at any time. The violation letter has a variety of allegations, but most letters will detail violations, with an attachment of details. You have only 10 days to respond. Once you hire Spodek Law Group, we handle all of the communicationswith the USDA and for compiling all the necessary evidence, and drafting a response to the USDA.

After reviewing the store’s answer to the violation letter, the USDA may still decide that a violation has occurred. If that happens, they’ll will 100% issue a second letter which outlines the agencies legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the grocery 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 firm, our team the necessary paperwork to notify them appeal the decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and our team will draft the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is critical to overturn the decision.

In the event the USDA refuses to change the legal decision, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This process is like a normal federal court case, where you’ll be able to do discovery, file motions, and have a trial. Our attorneys can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a food store retailer, there are many laws you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, many retail store owners don’t run into problems. However, the SNAP program can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, SNAP recipients cant get electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe fines. If you conduct a serious violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores don’t even know the violations were even happening. In many situations, unethical employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to consult with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is sent to your grocery store, you only have 10 days to respond to the violations. Your failure to respond to the violations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will generate a verdict even if you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our lawyers will discredit the findings of the USDA and appeal any decision. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully chooses to impose large fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. It must be in writing and in effect when the allegations were filed.

The retailer must be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in existence before the allegations, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA will also look to check if the grocery store owners benefited from the violations, or were aware of the violation. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any grocery store owner that gets a letter speak to with a SNAP violation attorney. Failure can result 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.