Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Orem Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then you might have received a letter of warning from the USDA. The notice is probably 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, and it will have records of transactions that occurred at your store that the USDA claims is in violation of one or more groups of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you should contact our legal team. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will terminate/suspend your stores ability to accept EBT.

About The Program

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

The government 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 does it mean to have a SNAP violation

SNAP legal violations happen if and when a store is in violation of the following rules.

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

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

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

The grocery store took money for more EBT food stamps than food sales during the same period.

Your employees accepted 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 appeals letters. Our law firm can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 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. The letter can come with, or without, prior warnings and can happen at any time. The SNAP violation letter will have allegations in it, but most letters will mention violations, with an attachment of details. You have only 10 days to respond. Once you hire Spodek Law Group, our lawyers 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 violation letter, the USDA might still feel that your store has violated the rules. If this happens, the USDA will definitely send a second letter that specifically states the governments decision to suspend or disqualify the store based on the accusations previously mentioned. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you choose not to, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our law firm, our team the legal papers and notify them we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and our team will generate an appellate brief containing all of the case law, evidence, etc. which is necessary to change the outcome of the violations.

In the event the USDA refuses to override the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. The Judicial Appeal is like a normal federal 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 normal situations, many grocery 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, people getting SNAP benefits cant purchase electronic goods. If, and when, you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in fines, and penalties. If it’s believed you did a serious violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, store owners don’t even know the violations are even occurring. In many situations, unethical employees are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to consult with a SNAP violation attorney to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is sent to your grocery store, you have only 10 days to respond to the violations. Your failure to respond will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will generate a verdict even though you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our lawyers will discredit the decision 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 huge fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. The policy has to be in writing at the store and the policy must be at the time the allegations 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 will also look in order to see if the grocery store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or were aware of the violation. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store that receives a violation letter consult 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.