Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

San Francisco Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then you might have been the recipient of a a official notice from the USDA. The letter is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is claiming you have violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, which will contain transactions that occurred at your retail store which the USDA claims is in violation of one or more categories of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you should speak to our our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you don’t respond, the USDA will terminate/suspend your stores ability to take EBT.

About The Program

The SNAP program provides families with a certain amount of money each month. These benefits are distributed to consumers through an EBT card. The benefits on the EBT card cannot legally be used for general use, and they can’t be used for fraudulent cash back services. The EBT cards took the place of 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 federal and it’s parameters are governed 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 violations occur when a store is in violation of the rules below.

The store was involved intrafficking SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

The store submitted incorrect info on your store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

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

Your employees accepted SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t eligible to use the benefits.

How we can help defend you against a SNAP violation notice

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

Sending the letter is the first step which is taken by the USDA USDA to take away your right to take EBT benefits. This letter may come with no warning and can appear at any time. The violation letter has a variety of allegations, but most of them will detail violations, with an attachment of details. 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 notice of violation, the USDA may still believe that a violation has occurred. If that happens, they’ll will 100% issue a second letter which specifically states the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the store based on the allegations set forth. Like before, you have ten days to protest the decision. If you don’t, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our firm, our team the necessary paperwork to 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 legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is critical to overturn the decision.

In the event the USDA refuses to change the decision, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District 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 have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most cases, many grocery store owners have no problems 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 purchase electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If it’s believed you did a serious violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores didn’t even know the violations were even happening. In many situations, dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to consult with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is delivered to your retail store, you only have ten days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Failure to respond to the violations will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will make 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 the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers will challenge the decision of the USDA and fight any decision. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully chooses to impose large fines to in order to curb future 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 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 typically also looks to see if the owners benefited from the violations, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any owner that gets a letter speak to 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.