Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Birmingham Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then it’s possible have received a letter from the USDA. The letter is probably a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you have violated the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, and it will contain transactions that happened at your store which the USDA claims is in violation of one or more groups of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation letter, you should speak to our our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will suspend your stores ability to take EBT.

About The SNAP Program

The SNAP program provides families with get food each month. The SNAP program benefits are given through an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on this card aren’t for general usage, and they cannot be used for fraudulent cash back transactions. The cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued by each state individually where the recipient lives. The program is run on a nationwide level by the federal government.

This government and it’s parameters 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’s a SNAP Violation

Snap violations happen when a retail store violates any of the rules below.

The retail store took part intrafficking SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

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

Your grocery store took money for more coupons than sale of actual food during 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 experience handling SNAP appeals letters. Our law firm can handle your SNAP violation process in all phases of a SNAP action.

Sending the violation letter is the initial step which is going to be taken by USDA to take away your EBT license. This letter may come with, or without, prior warnings and can appear at any time. The violation letter will have allegations in it, but most of them will mention serious allegations, have evidence attached proving the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. Once you hire our law firm, 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, the USDA will issue another letter that specifically states the governments decision to suspend or disqualify the store based on the allegations set forth. Like before, you have 10 days to protest the verdict. If you choose not to, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our firm, we’ll file the appeal and notify them we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and we will draft 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.

If 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 case, where you’ll have to do standard processes like 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 which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, many retail store owners have no issues adhering to them. However, SNAP can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, people getting SNAP benefits 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 include fines and penalties. If it’s believed you did a major SNAP 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. In many situations, unethical employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to speak with a SNAP violation lawyer to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is presented to your retail store, you only have 10 days to respond to the allegations. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will make a verdict even if you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers will challenge the findings of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully does huge fines to curb violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. The policy must be in writing at the store and the policy must be when 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 to see if the retail store owners benefited from the violations, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any grocery 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.