Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Sterling Heights Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then you might have been the recipient of a a notice from the USDA. The notification is probably a SNAP violation letter, which is stating you violated the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, which will have transactions that happened at your store that the USDA claims is in violation of one or more genres of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you must contact our legal team. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you choose to ignore, the government will suspend your grocery store’s ability to accept EBT.

About The SNAP Program

This program provides families with money each month. These benefits are given through an EBT card. The funds on the EBT card cannot be used 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 the card is issued by each state individually which the SNAP participant lives. The program is run on a national level by the government.

This federal and the benefits that come with it 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 counts as a SNAP violation

Snap violations happen when a retail store is in violation of the rules below.

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

Your grocery store took SNAP benefits 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.

The store redeemed more coupons than sale of actual food during 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

Our law firm has experience handling SNAP violations letters. We can handle your SNAP violation process in all phases of a SNAP action.

The charging letter is the initial step taken by the USDA to take away your EBT license. This comes with no warning and can appear at any time. The charging letter will contain allegations, but most of them will lay out violations, with an attachment of details. You have only 10 days to respond. Once you hire Spodek Law Group, 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 violation letter, the USDA might still feel that your store has violated the rules. If this happens, they’ll will definitely send a second letter which outlines the governments legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the accusations previously mentioned. Like before, you have 10 days to protest this verdict. If you choose not to, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our firm, we file the necessary paperwork to notify the government appeal the decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and our team will generate the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is needed to fix the outcome.

In the event the USDA refuses to override the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This next phase is like a normal 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 don’t run into problems. However, SNAP 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, and when, you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If you conduct a serious SNAP violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores didn’t know SNAP violations are even happening. Often, it’s dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is delivered to your retail store, you have only 10 days to respond to the allegations. Failure to respond to the violations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will deliver a verdict even if you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you cannot defend your store. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers can challenge the findings 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 large fines to curb violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. The policy 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 place before the charge, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA will also look to check if the owners benefited from the violations, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any owner that receives 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.