Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Arlington Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then you might have been the recipient of a a letter of warning from the USDA. This notification is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is alleging you are in violation of the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, which will contain records of transactions which happened at your grocery store that the USDA is saying is in violation of one or more genres of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you must contact our legal team. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you don’t respond, the government will suspend your stores ability to accept EBT payments.

About The SNAP Program

This program provides families with get food each month. These benefits are given through an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on this card cannot be used for general use, and they can’t be used for cash back transactions. The cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued in the state where the consumer lives. This program is operated on a national level by the government.

The 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 legal violations occur when a grocery store violates any of the rules below.

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

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

The store submitted incorrect information on the store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

The grocery 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 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 team of attorneys can handle your SNAP violation process in all 3 phases of a SNAP Violation action.

Sending the violation letter is the first step which is taken by the USDA USDA to remove your right to take EBT benefits. The letter can come with no warning and can happen at any time. The violation letter contain details about alleged violations, but most of them will detail violations, with an attachment of details. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. After you hire our law firm, we 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 decide that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, they’ll will definitely send another letter which specifically states the agencies legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have ten days to protest the verdict. If you don’t, then you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, our team the necessary paperwork to notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and our team will generate the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the legal laws, 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 Court. This process 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’s a lot of rules and regulations which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, many retail store owners don’t run into problems. However, USDA’s SNAP program can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, SNAP recipients cant purchase electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in fines, and penalties. If it’s believed you did a major violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, store owners didn’t know the violations were even happening. Often, unethical employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation lawyer in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is delivered to your grocery store, you only have 10 days to respond to the violations. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will make a verdict even if you don’t respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you cannot defend your store. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our SNAP appeals lawyers can discredit the decision of the USDA and appeal any penalties. 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 in order to curb future violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. It has to be in writing at the store and in effect at the time the violations were filed.

The retailer also be able to prove the compliance policy was in existence before the allegations, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA typically also looks in order to check if the grocery store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or were aware of the violation. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any store owner that gets a 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.