Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Illinois Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then it’s possible have received a letter of warning from the USDA. This notice is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is claiming you are in violation of the SNAP program. The USDA will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, and it will have records of transactions that occurred at your store that the government is saying violates one or more genres of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you should 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 payments.

About The SNAP Program

This program provides families with funds to buy food each month. These benefits are distributed to consumers with an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on this card are not for general usage, and they can’t be used for cash back services. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued by each state individually where the consumer lives. The program is operated on a national level by the government.

The government and it’s benefits are governed 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 legal violations happen if and when a grocery store violates any of the following rules.

The retail store was involved intrafficking SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

The store submitted incorrect information on the retail stores application to accept EBT benefits.

Your store took money for more coupons than food sales during the same period.

The employees of the store took SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t allowed to use them.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

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

The charging letter is the first step taken by the USDA to remove your right to take EBT benefits. This letter may come with, or without, prior warnings and can appear at any time. The violation letter has a variety of allegations, but most of them will outline serious allegations, with an attachment of details. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. After 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.

Once the USDA reviews your answer to the notice of violation, the USDA may still believe that a violation has occurred. If this happens, they’ll will 100% issue a second letter which outlines the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the store based on the accusations previously mentioned. Like before, you have 10 days to protest the verdict. If you don’t, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our firm, we’ll file the appeal and notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and our team will draft the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the case law, 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. The Judicial Appeal is like a normal 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 grocery store retailer, there are many laws you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, 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 limits on how the funds can be used. For example, SNAP recipients cant get electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe fines. If it’s believed you did a major SNAP violation, then you may end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores don’t even know the violations are even occurring. In many situations, it’s dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to discuss your case with a SNAP violation lawyer in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is presented to your grocery store, you have only ten 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 generate a verdict even though 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 lawyers will fight the findings of the USDA and fight any penalties. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose imposes large fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. The policy must be in writing and the policy must be when the violations were filed.

The store owner also be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in existence before the allegations, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA typically also looks in order to see if the retail store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any store 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.