Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Alaska Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then you might have been the recipient of a a letter of warning from the USDA. This notice is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you have violated the SNAP program. The USDA will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, which will contain records of transactions that occurred at your grocery 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 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 USDA will terminate/suspend your stores ability to take EBT.

About The Program

The SNAP program helps families with money each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed through an EBT card. The benefits on the EBT card cannot be used for general usage, and they cannot be used for fraudulent cash back services. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued in the state where the consumer lives. The 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 does it mean to have a SNAP violation

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

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

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

The store submitted false information on your store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

The store took money for more EBT food stamps than food sales over the same period.

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

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

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

Sending the letter is the initial step which is going to be taken by USDA to take away your EBT license. This letter may come with, or without, prior warnings and can happen at any time. The violation letter will have allegations in it, but most letters will mention violations, with an attachment of details. You have only 10 days to respond. 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 violation letter, the USDA may still feel that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, they’ll will definitely send another letter that outlines their decision 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, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our firm, our team the necessary paperwork to notify them appeal the decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and we will draft generate an appellate brief which contains all of the case law, evidence, etc. which is critical to fix the outcome.

In the event the USDA refuses to overturn the decision, in the Administrative Review, we’ll 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. We can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a food store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, 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’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If it’s believed you did a major violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, store owners don’t know SNAP violations are even occurring. In many situations, it’s dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to consult with a SNAP violation lawyer to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is sent to your grocery store, you only have 10 days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Failure to respond to the violations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will make a verdict even though you choose not to respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our SNAP appeals lawyers can fight the decision of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The financial penalties imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully imposes large fines to curb violations. The USDA will typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. It must be in writing and in effect at the time the violations were filed.

The store owner 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 check if the grocery store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any owner that gets a allegation 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.