Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Odessa Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then you might have received a letter from the USDA. This notice is probably a SNAP violation letter, which is alleging you have violated the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, which will have transactions which occurred at your grocery store that the government is saying violates one or more categories of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you must 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 suspend your stores privilege to take EBT.

About The SNAP Program

The SNAP program provides families with get food each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed through an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on the EBT card cannot be used for general use, and they cannot be used for cash back services. The EBT cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued in the state which the SNAP participant lives. This program is run on a nationwide level by the government.

The program and it’s benefits 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’s a SNAP Violation

Snap violations occur if and when a retail store violates any of the rules below.

The retail store is accused oftrafficking SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

The retail store accepted SNAP benefits in exchange for nonfood items like alcohol, tobacco, or other goods.

The store submitted false info on your store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

Your store redeemed more coupons than actual food sales during the same period.

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

How we can help defend you against a SNAP violation notice

Our law firm has immense experience managing SNAP violations letters. We can handle your SNAP violation process in all 3 phases of a SNAP action.

The charging letter is the first step which is taken by the USDA USDA to take away your EBT license. This comes with no warning and can appear at any time. The violation letter has a variety of allegations, but most letters will lay out serious allegations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. After you hire Spodek Law Group, 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 notice of violation, the USDA may still believe that your store has violated the rules. If this happens, they’ll will 100% issue a second letter that outlines the agencies 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 stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, we file the legal papers and notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and our team will generate the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is necessary to fix the outcome.

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 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’s a lot of rules and regulations you have to adhere to for 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 limits on how the funds can be used. For example, people getting SNAP benefits 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 fines, and penalties. If it’s believed you did a major violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores don’t even know the violations were even occurring. In many situations, it’s dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to speak with a SNAP violation attorney to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is presented to your grocery store, you have only ten days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Failure to respond to the violations will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will generate a verdict even if you choose not to respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. 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 on purpose imposes 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 when the allegations were filed.

The store owner must has to 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 in order to check if the grocery store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

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