Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

New Rochelle Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then you might have been the recipient of a a official warning from the USDA. This notification is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you are in violation of 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 retail store that the USDA is saying is in violation of one or more groups of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you should definitely speak to our our law firm. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will suspend your grocery store’s ability to accept EBT payments.

About The SNAP Program

This program provides families with get food each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed via an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on the card are not for general use, and they cannot be used for cash back transactions. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued in the state where the recipient lives. The program is operated on a nationwide level by the government.

The SNAP government and it’s benefits are governed 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 when a grocery store violates any of the following rules.

The store took part intrafficking SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

The store submitted false information on the store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

The grocery store took money for more coupons than 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.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

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

The charging letter is the first step which is taken by the USDA USDA to take away your EBT license. The letter can come with, or without, prior warnings and can happen at any time. The SNAP violation letter contain details about alleged violations, but most of them will detail serious allegations, 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 believe that a violation has occurred. If that happens, the USDA will 100% issue a second letter which specifically states the agencies legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the retail 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 file the legal papers and notify them we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and we will draft draft an appellate brief which contains all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is critical to change the outcome of the violations.

In the event the USDA refuses to override the legal decision, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This next phase is like a normal federal 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 have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most normal situations, many grocery store owners don’t run into problems. However, USDA’s 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 get electronic goods. If, and when, you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe fines. If it’s believed you did a serious violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores don’t know SNAP violations are even happening. In many situations, unethical employees are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation attorney to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is presented to your grocery store, you only have 10 days to respond to the claims. Your failure to respond to the violations will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will generate a verdict even if you don’t 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 findings of the USDA and fight any decision. The fines imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose imposes large fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. It must be in writing at the store and in effect when the allegations were filed.

The store owner also has to be able to prove the compliance policy was in place before the charge, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA will also look in order to check if the grocery store owners benefited from the violations, or were aware of the violation. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any grocery store owner that receives a violation letter speak to 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.