Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

South Dakota Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then you might have been the recipient of a a letter from the USDA. This notice is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is stating you have violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, which will have records of transactions which occurred at your store which the government claims violates one or more groups of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation letter, you should speak to our our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the government will suspend your stores ability to accept EBT.

About The Program

The SNAP program provides families with money each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed through an EBT card. The benefits on the EBT card aren’t for general use, and they cannot be used for fraudulent cash back transactions. The cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued in the state which the SNAP participant lives. The SNAP program is run on a national level by the federal government.

This 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 counts as a SNAP violation

Snap violations occur when a grocery store violates any of the following rules.

The retail store is accused oftrafficking SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

The store submitted incorrect info on your retail stores application to accept EBT benefits.

Your grocery store took money for more EBT food stamps than sale of actual food over the same period.

The employees of the store have taken SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t eligible to use the benefits.

How we can help defend you against a SNAP violation notice

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

Sending the letter is the first step which is going to be taken by USDA to take away your right to take EBT benefits. This letter may come with, or without, prior warnings and can appear at any time. The charging letter will contain allegations, but most letters will detail violations, 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.

After reviewing the store’s answer to the SNAP violation letter, the USDA may still believe that a violation has occurred. If that happens, they’ll will definitely send a second letter that outlines their legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have ten days to protest the decision. If you choose not to, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our lawyers, we file the necessary paperwork to notify the USDA appeal the decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and our team will generate an appellate brief containing all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is critical to overturn the decision.

In the event the USDA refuses to override the binding decision, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. The Judicial Appeal is like a normal court case, where you’ll have to do standard processes like discovery, file motions, and have a trial. We can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a grocery store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, many retail store owners have no problems adhering to them. 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. If you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If you conduct a serious SNAP violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, store owners don’t even know the violations are even happening. Often, unethical employees are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to speak with a SNAP violation attorney in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is delivered to your grocery store, you only have 10 days to respond to the allegations. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will generate a verdict even if you don’t respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you cannot defend your store. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers can challenge the findings of the USDA and fight any decision. The penalties imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully imposes huge fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. It has to be in writing at the store and in effect when the allegations were filed.

The grocery store must be able to prove the compliance policy was in place before the charge, and was not drafted after the violation letter. 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. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store that receives a letter speak to with a SNAP violation attorney. Choosing not to respond 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.