Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

North Carolina Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then may have gotten a official notice from the USDA. This notification is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is stating you are in violation of the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, and it will have transactions that occurred at your grocery store that the USDA claims violates one or more groups of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you must contact our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you don’t respond, the USDA will suspend your stores ability to accept EBT.

About The SNAP Program

The SNAP program provides families with a certain amount of money each month. These benefits are distributed to consumers via an EBT card. The benefits on this card cannot be used for general usage, and they can’t be used for cash back services. The cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued in the state where the consumer lives. The SNAP program is run on a nationwide level by the federal government.

The federal and it’s benefits are governed by the US Code and the Code of Federal Regulations. The USDA FNS agency enforces the regulations and runs the program.

What counts as a SNAP violation

SNAP legal violations happen if and when a store violates any of the rules below.

The grocery store took part inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting the benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

Your store submitted incorrect info on your store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

Your grocery store redeemed more coupons than actual food sales during the same period.

The employees of the store have taken SNAP benefits from an unauthorized person who isn’t allowed to use the benefits.

How to defend your store against a SNAP violation

Our law firm has immense experience managing SNAP appeals letters. We can handle your SNAP violation process in all 3 phases of a SNAP violation action.

Sending the violation letter is the initial step which is taken by the USDA USDA to take away your EBT license. This letter may come with, or without, prior warnings and can appear at any time. The SNAP violation letter will contain allegations, but most of them will lay out serious allegations, have evidence attached proving the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. After you hire Spodek Law Group, our lawyers handle all of the communicationswith the USDA and for compiling all the necessary evidence, and drafting a response to the USDA.

Once the USDA reviews your answer to the SNAP violation letter, the USDA might still believe that a violation has occurred. If this happens, they’ll will issue another letter which specifically states their legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the accusations previously mentioned. Like before, you have ten days to protest this verdict. If you don’t, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our firm, our team the legal papers and notify the government we are going to appeal their 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 needed to fix the outcome.

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 case, where you’ll have to do standard processes like discovery, file motions, and have a trial. Our law firm 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 grocery store owners have no problems adhering to them. However, the SNAP program can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limits on how the funds can be used. For example, SNAP recipients cant purchase electronic goods. If, and when, you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If it’s believed you did a major violation, then you may end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, store owners didn’t know SNAP violations are even happening. Often, unethical employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to discuss your case with a SNAP violation lawyer to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is sent to your store, you have only ten days to respond to the claims. Your failure to respond will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will generate a verdict even if you don’t respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers can discredit the findings of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully chooses to impose huge fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. It must be in writing and the policy must be when the allegations were filed.

The store owner also be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in place before the charge, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA will also look in order to see if the grocery store owners benefited from the violations, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store owner that gets a allegation letter consult 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.