Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Sparks Snap Violation Lawyers

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

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 accept EBT.

About The SNAP Program

This program provides families with a certain amount of money each month. The SNAP program benefits are given via an EBT card. The benefits on the EBT card aren’t for general usage, and they can’t be used for fraudulent cash back services. The cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued by each state individually which the SNAP participant lives. The program is run on a national level by the government.

This program and it’s parameters are under handled 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 violations occur when a store is in violation of the following rules.

The retail store is accused oftrafficking SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

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

Your store redeemed more EBT food stamps than food sales during the same period.

The employees of the store took SNAP benefits from someone who shouldn’t be allowed to use the benefits.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

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

The charging letter is the initial step which is taken by the USDA USDA to take away your EBT license. This comes with, or without, prior warnings can come at any time. The charging letter will have allegations in it, but most of them will lay out serious allegations, have evidence attached proving the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. Once you hire Spodek Law Group, 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 violation letter, the USDA might still believe that a violation has occurred. If this happens, they’ll will 100% issue another letter that specifically states the governments legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the allegations set forth. Like before, you have 10 days to protest this verdict. If you don’t, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our law firm, we file the necessary paperwork to notify the government appeal the decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and our team will generate the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is critical to fix the outcome.

If the USDA refuses to override the legal decision, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This process 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 grocery store retailer, there are many laws you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, many grocery store owners have no issues adhering to them. However, SNAP 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. If you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe fines. If you conduct a serious violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores didn’t know SNAP violations were even occurring. Often, it’s dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to consult with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is presented to your retail store, you only have ten days to respond to the claims. Failure to respond will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will generate a verdict even though 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 the ability to fight for your rights. Our SNAP appeals lawyers can discredit the findings of the USDA and appeal any decision. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully does large fines to curb 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 violations were filed.

The store owner also has to 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 see if the owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store owner that gets a 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.