Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Bloomington Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then it’s possible have gotten a notice from the USDA. This letter is probably a SNAP violation letter, which is alleging you violated the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, which will contain transactions that occurred at your retail store that the government claims is in violation of one or more genres of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you should speak to our our law firm. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you don’t respond, the government will terminate/suspend your stores ability to accept EBT payments.

About The Program

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

The federal and it’s parameters 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 counts as a SNAP violation

Snap violations happen when a store is in violation of the following rules.

The grocery store was involved intrafficking SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting the benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

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

The store took money for more coupons than food sales at the same time.

Your employees have taken SNAP benefits from an unauthorized person who isn’t allowed to use the benefits.

How we can help defend you against a SNAP violation notice

Our law firm has immense experience managing SNAP violations letters. Our law firm can handle your SNAP violation process in all 3 phases of a SNAP action.

Sending the letter is the first step taken by the USDA to remove your EBT license. This letter may come with no warning and can happen at any time. The charging letter will contain allegations, but most letters will mention violations, have evidence attached proving the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. 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.

Once the USDA reviews your answer to the notice of violation, the USDA might still decide that your store has violated the rules. If this happens, the USDA will 100% issue a second letter that outlines their decision to suspend or disqualify the store based on the allegations set forth. Like before, you have ten days to protest the verdict. If you choose not to, then you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, we’ll file the necessary paperwork to notify them we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and we will draft generate the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is critical to overturn the decision.

If the USDA refuses to change the decision, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. The Judicial Appeal is like a normal federal court case, where you’ll have to do standard processes like 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 cases, 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, people getting SNAP benefits cant get electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If you conduct a serious SNAP violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores didn’t even know the violations are even happening. Often, it’s dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation attorney in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is presented to your retail store, you have only 10 days to respond to the claims. Failure to respond will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond 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 cannot defend your store. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will discredit the findings of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The financial penalties imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully imposes huge 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 when the violations were filed.

The retailer also be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in place before the charge, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA will also look in order to see if the owners benefited from the violations, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any owner that gets a allegation 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.