Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Stamford Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then may have gotten a official notice from the USDA. The notice is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you have violated the SNAP program. The USDA will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, and it will contain transactions which occurred at your retail store that the government claims violates one or more groups of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you should definitely speak to our our law firm. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will terminate/suspend your stores ability to take EBT.

About The SNAP Program

The SNAP program helps families with get food each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed to consumers via an EBT card. The funds on the EBT card aren’t for general use, and they cannot be used for cash back transactions. The EBT cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued in the state where the consumer lives. The SNAP program is operated on a nationwide level by the federal government.

This government and the benefits that come with it are governed by the United States 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 happen when a retail store is in violation of the following rules.

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

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

Your store submitted incorrect information on the retail stores application to accept EBT benefits.

Your store redeemed more coupons than actual food sales at the same time.

The employees of the store have taken SNAP benefits from an unauthorized person who isn’t allowed to use the benefits.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Spodek Law Group has experience handling SNAP violations letters. We can handle your SNAP violation process in all 3 phases of a SNAP action.

Sending the violation letter is the first step which is taken by the USDA USDA to take away your right to take EBT benefits. This comes with no warning and can happen at any time. The SNAP violation letter has a variety of allegations, but most letters will outline 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.

After reviewing the store’s answer to the notice of violation, the USDA may still feel that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, the USDA will issue another letter which outlines the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the accusations previously mentioned. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you choose not to, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, we file the legal papers to notify the USDA 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 legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to change the outcome of the violations.

In the event the USDA refuses to change the legal decision, 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. Our law firm can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a food store retailer, there are many laws 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 limits on how the funds can be used. For example, people getting SNAP benefits cant purchase electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe fines. If you conduct a serious SNAP violation, then you may end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, store owners don’t even know the violations were even happening. Often, dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to discuss your case with a SNAP violation attorney in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is delivered to your store, you have only ten days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Failure to respond will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will generate a verdict even if 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 can fight the findings of the USDA and fight any decision. The financial penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully does huge fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. The policy must be in writing and in effect when the violations were filed.

The store owner also be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in existence before the allegations, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA typically also looks to see if the retail store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or were aware of the violation. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any grocery store owner that gets a allegation 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.