Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Annapolis Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then it’s possible have received a letter from the USDA. The letter is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is alleging you have violated the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, and it will contain records of transactions that happened at your grocery store that the USDA is saying violates one or more categories of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you should definitely speak to our our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you don’t respond, the government will terminate/suspend your grocery store’s ability to take EBT.

About The Program

The SNAP program helps families with funds to buy food each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed to consumers with an EBT card. The funds on this card cannot legally be used for general use, and they can’t be used for cash back services. The EBT cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued by each state individually where the recipient lives. The SNAP program is operated on a national level by the government.

The government and the benefits that come with it 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 counts as a SNAP violation

Snap violations occur when a retail store violates any of the rules below.

The store took part inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

Your store submitted incorrect info on your grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

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

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

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Our law firm has experience handling SNAP violation letters. Our team of attorneys can handle your SNAP violation process in all phases of a SNAP action.

Sending the letter is the initial step which is taken by the USDA USDA to remove your EBT license. The letter can come with no warning and can appear at any time. The charging letter will have allegations in it, but most of them will outline violations, have evidence attached proving the violations. 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 notice of violation, the USDA might still decide that a violation has occurred. If this happens, they’ll will 100% issue another letter that specifically states their legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the alleged violations. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you don’t, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our law firm, our team the necessary paperwork to notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and we will draft generate the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to change the outcome of the violations.

In the event the USDA refuses to change the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This process 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 are many laws you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, many grocery store owners have no problems adhering to them. However, USDA’s SNAP program can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, people getting SNAP benefits cant get electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in fines, and penalties. If it’s believed you did a serious SNAP violation, then you may end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores didn’t even know the violations are even happening. In many situations, unethical employees who 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 crush your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will deliver a verdict even though you choose not to respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you cannot defend your store. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers will discredit the findings of the USDA and appeal any penalties. 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 will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. It has to be in writing and in effect at the time the violations were filed.

The retailer must has to be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in existence before the allegations, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA will also look in order to see if the owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store that gets a letter consult 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.