Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

San Leandro Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then may have gotten a notice from the USDA. This notification is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is stating you violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, and it will contain transactions which occurred at your store that the government is saying violates one or more groups of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you must speak to our our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will terminate/suspend your stores privilege to take 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 cash back transactions. The cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued in the state where the consumer lives. The SNAP program is operated on a nationwide level by the federal government.

This federal and it’s benefits 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’s a SNAP Violation

SNAP legal violations occur if and when a grocery store violates any of the rules below.

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

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

Your store submitted false info on your retail stores application to accept EBT benefits.

The grocery store redeemed more EBT food stamps than actual food sales at the same time.

Your employees have taken SNAP benefits from someone who shouldn’t be allowed to use the benefits.

How we can help defend you against a SNAP violation notice

Spodek Law Group has experience managing SNAP appeals letters. Our team of attorneys can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP Violation action.

Sending the letter is the first step taken by the USDA to remove your EBT license. This comes with, or without, prior warnings and can happen at any time. The violation letter contain details about alleged violations, but most of them will lay out violations, with an attachment of details. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. Once you hire our law firm, 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.

After reviewing the store’s answer to the notice of violation, the USDA might still feel that a violation has occurred. If this happens, they’ll will definitely send another letter which outlines the governments decision to suspend or disqualify the store based on the accusations previously mentioned. Like before, you have ten days to protest this verdict. If you choose not to, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our firm, we’ll file the appeal to notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and we will draft generate the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to fix the outcome.

In the event the USDA refuses to overturn 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 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 retail 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, SNAP recipients cant purchase electronic goods. As a retailer, if 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 may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, store owners don’t know the violations were even happening. In many situations, dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to speak with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is presented to your grocery store, you only have ten days to respond to the violations. Your failure to respond to the allegations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will deliver a verdict even though you choose not to respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you cannot defend your store. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our SNAP appeals lawyers can discredit the decision 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 look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. The policy has to be in writing and the policy must be when the violations were filed.

The grocery store must be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in place before the charge, 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. 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.