Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Michigan Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then may have been the recipient of a a letter of warning from the USDA. The letter is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is claiming you are in violation of the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, which will have transactions that occurred at your retail store that the USDA claims violates one or more groups of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you should contact our legal team. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT.

About The Program

This program helps families with money each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed to consumers with an EBT card. The benefits on the EBT card are not for general usage, and they can’t be used for cash back transactions. The cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued in the state which the SNAP participant lives. The SNAP program is operated on a nationwide level by the government.

The federal and it’s parameters 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 violations occur when a grocery store violates any of the rules below.

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

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

The store submitted false information on the grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

The store redeemed more coupons than food sales over the same period.

Your employees have taken SNAP benefits from someone who shouldn’t be allowed to use the benefits.

How we can help defend you against a SNAP violation notice

Spodek Law Group has immense experience handling SNAP violation letters. Our law firm 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 take away your right to take EBT benefits. This letter may come with no warning can come at any time. The charging letter will have allegations in it, but most letters will detail serious allegations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. After you hire our law firm, our lawyers take into their hands 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 believe that a violation has occurred. If this happens, the USDA will definitely send another letter that outlines the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have 10 days to protest the verdict. If you don’t, then you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our law firm, we file the legal papers and notify them we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and we will draft draft the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is critical to overturn the decision.

In the event the USDA refuses to change the binding decision, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal 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 food 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 limits on how the funds can be used. For example, SNAP recipients cant buy electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe fines. If it’s believed you did a serious violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores didn’t even know the violations were even occurring. Often, unethical employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to consult with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is presented to your store, you have only 10 days to respond to the allegations. Failure to respond to the violations will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond 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 SNAP appeals lawyers will discredit the decision of the USDA and fight any decision. The fines imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully chooses to impose huge fines to curb violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. The policy has to be in writing at the store and in effect when the violations were filed.

The grocery store must has to 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 owners benefited from the violations, or were aware of the violation. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store owner that receives a violation letter consult 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.