Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Virginia Beach Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then you might have received a letter of warning from the USDA. The notification is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is stating you are in violation of the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, which will have records of transactions that occurred at your grocery store that the government claims is in violation of one or more categories of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you must speak to our our law firm. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you don’t respond, the government will suspend your grocery store’s ability to accept EBT payments.

About The Program

The SNAP program provides families with a certain amount of money each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed via an EBT card. The benefits on this card aren’t for general usage, and they can’t be used for cash back transactions. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued in the state which the SNAP participant lives. The SNAP program is run on a national level by the federal government.

This program and it’s benefits 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 does it mean to have a SNAP violation

Snap violations happen if and when a grocery store is in violation of the following rules.

The retail store is accused ofthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

The grocery store accepted SNAP benefits 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.

Your store redeemed more EBT food stamps than sale of actual food during 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

Spodek Law Group has experience managing 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 initial step taken by the USDA to take away your EBT license. This letter may come with, or without, prior warnings and can appear at any time. The SNAP violation letter will have allegations in it, but most of them will detail serious allegations, have evidence attached proving 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.

After reviewing the store’s answer to the violation letter, the USDA may still decide that a violation has occurred. If this happens, the USDA will 100% issue another letter that outlines their decision to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the allegations set forth. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you choose not to, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our lawyers, we file the legal papers to notify them appeal the decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and we will draft draft the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to overturn the decision.

In the event the USDA refuses to override 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 federal court case, where you’ll be able to do discovery, file motions, and have a trial. Our lawyers 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 grocery 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 buy electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can include fines and penalties. If you conduct a major violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores don’t know the violations are even occurring. Often, it’s dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to consult with a SNAP violation lawyer in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is delivered to your grocery store, you have only 10 days to respond to the claims. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will deliver a verdict even though you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our lawyers will challenge the decision of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose does huge fines to curb violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. It must be in writing and in effect at the time the violations were filed.

The grocery store must has to be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in place before the charge, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA will also look in order to see if the retail store 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 gets a violation 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.