Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

North Dakota Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then may have been the recipient of a a letter from the USDA. This notification is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is alleging you violated the SNAP program. The USDA will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, which will have records of transactions which happened at your store which the USDA is saying is in violation of one or more categories of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you should definitely speak to our our law firm. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you don’t respond, the government will suspend your grocery store’s ability to take EBT.

About The Program

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

The federal and it’s benefits are under handled by the United States Code and the Code of Federal Regulations. The USDA FNS agency enforces the regulations and runs the program.

What’s a SNAP Violation

Snap violations happen if and when a retail store violates any of the following rules.

The retail store took part intrafficking SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

Your store submitted incorrect information on the grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

The grocery store took money for more coupons than sale of actual food at the same time.

Your employees have taken SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t allowed to use them.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

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

The charging letter is the first step which is taken by the USDA USDA to take away your EBT license. This letter may come with no warning can come at any time. The SNAP violation letter will have allegations in it, but most letters will lay out violations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. Once you hire Spodek Law Group, our lawyers take into their hands 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 violation letter, the USDA might still decide that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, the USDA will issue a second letter which outlines the governments decision to suspend or disqualify the store based on the accusations previously mentioned. Like before, you have 10 days to appeal the decision. If you choose not to, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our law firm, we file the legal papers to notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and our team will draft an appellate brief which contains all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is necessary to fix the outcome.

If the USDA refuses to override the binding decision, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. The Judicial Appeal is like a normal case, where you’ll be able to do 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’s a lot of rules and regulations have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most normal situations, many grocery store owners don’t run into problems. 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 get electronic goods. If, and when, you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe fines. If you conduct a serious violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores didn’t know the violations are even happening. In many situations, unethical employees are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to discuss your case with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is delivered to your retail store, you only have ten days to respond to the allegations. Failure to respond to the violations will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will deliver a verdict even if you choose not to 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 a fighting change. Our lawyers will fight the findings of the USDA and appeal any decision. The fines imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully does large fines to curb violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. It has to be in writing and in effect when the violations were filed.

The store owner must be able to prove the compliance policy was in place before the charge, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA typically also looks to check if the retail store owners benefited from the violations, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any owner that receives a 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.