Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Iowa Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then you might have gotten a letter of warning from the USDA. The notice is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is claiming you have violated the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, which will contain transactions that occurred at your store that the government is saying is in violation of one or more categories of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you should speak to our our legal team. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you choose to ignore, the government will terminate/suspend your stores ability to accept EBT payments.

About The SNAP Program

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

The government 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 legal violations occur if and when a grocery store is in violation of the following rules.

The store is accused ofthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting the benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

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

The grocery store took money for more coupons than actual food sales over the same period.

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

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Our law firm has experience managing SNAP violations letters. Our team of attorneys can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all phases of a SNAP Violation action.

Sending the violation letter is the first step taken by the USDA to remove your EBT license. This comes with no warning can come at any time. The charging letter has a variety of allegations, but most of them will detail serious allegations, have evidence attached proving the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. 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.

Once the USDA reviews your answer to the notice of violation, the USDA might still decide that a violation has occurred. If this happens, they’ll will 100% issue a second letter which outlines their decision to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have 10 days to protest this decision. If you don’t, then you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, we’ll file the necessary paperwork and notify them appeal the decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and our team will generate the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to change the outcome of the violations.

In the event the USDA refuses to overturn the decision, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This next phase is like a normal court 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 have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most normal situations, many retail store owners have no issues 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 buy electronic goods. If, and when, you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in fines, and penalties. If it’s believed you did a major SNAP violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, store owners didn’t know the violations were even happening. In many situations, dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to consult with a SNAP violation attorney in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is presented to your store, you have only ten days to respond to the violations. Your failure to respond will permanently crush your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will generate a verdict even if you choose not to respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Hiring 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 fight any penalties. The fines imposed can expensive – 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. The policy must be in writing at the store and the policy must be at the time the violations were filed.

The retailer also be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in place before the charge, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA typically also looks 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 owner that gets a letter speak to 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.