Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Brockton Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then it’s possible have been the recipient of a a notice from the USDA. This notification is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is claiming you have violated the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, which will have records of transactions which happened at your store that the government claims is in violation of one or more categories of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation letter, you should definitely speak to our our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the government will suspend your grocery store’s ability to accept EBT payments.

About The SNAP Program

The SNAP program provides families with funds to buy food each month. These benefits are distributed through an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on the card aren’t for general use, and they can’t be used for fraudulent cash back services. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued in the state where the consumer lives. This program is operated on a national level by the government.

This government and it’s benefits 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 does it mean to have a SNAP violation

Snap violations happen if and when a store violates any of the following rules.

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

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

The store submitted incorrect information on your grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

The grocery store took money for more coupons than sale of actual food at the same time.

Your employees accepted SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t eligible to use the benefits.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Spodek Law Group has immense experience handling SNAP violation letters. Our law firm can handle your SNAP violation process in all 3 phases of a SNAP violation action.

The charging letter is the first step which is going to be taken by USDA to remove your EBT license. This letter may come with, or without, prior warnings and can appear at any time. The SNAP violation letter will have allegations in it, but most letters will outline violations, have evidence attached proving the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. Once 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 violation letter, the USDA may still believe that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, they’ll will definitely send another letter which outlines their legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the 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 firm, we’ll file the legal papers and notify the government appeal the decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and we will draft generate the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to fix the outcome.

If the USDA refuses to change the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal 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 lawyers can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a grocery store retailer, there are many laws have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most cases, many retail store owners have no issues adhering to them. However, USDA’s SNAP program can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, SNAP recipients cant purchase electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe fines. If you conduct a serious violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, store owners don’t know SNAP violations are even happening. In many situations, dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to consult with a SNAP violation lawyer to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is delivered to your retail store, you only have 10 days to respond to the claims. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will make a verdict even though you choose not to respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you cannot defend your store. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our lawyers will fight the decision 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 chooses to impose large fines to curb violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. It must be in writing and in effect at the time the allegations were filed.

The retailer also has to be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in existence before the allegations, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA will also look in order to see if the retail store owners benefited from the violations, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any grocery store 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.