Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Lake Charles Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then it’s possible have gotten a letter of warning from the USDA. This notice is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is claiming you are in violation of the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, and it will contain records of transactions which happened at your retail store that the USDA claims is in violation of one or more genres of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you should speak to our 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 grocery store’s ability to take EBT.

About The SNAP Program

This program helps families with money each month. The SNAP program benefits are given with an EBT card. The funds on this card are not for general use, and they cannot be used for cash back services. The cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued by each state individually where the recipient lives. This program is run on a nationwide level by the government.

The SNAP federal and the benefits that come with it 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 counts as a SNAP violation

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

The retail store was involved inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

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

Your store redeemed more EBT food stamps than food sales during the same period.

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

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

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

Sending the letter is the initial step which is taken by the USDA USDA to take away your right to take EBT benefits. This letter may come with no warning and can appear at any time. The charging letter will contain allegations, but most of them will mention serious allegations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. 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 notice of violation, the USDA might still feel that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, the USDA will issue a second letter that specifically states the governments legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the store based on the accusations previously mentioned. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you don’t, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our law firm, our team the appeal and notify the government appeal the decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and we will draft draft an appellate brief which contains all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is necessary to change the outcome of the violations.

If the USDA refuses to overturn the decision, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. The Judicial Appeal is like a normal 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’s a lot of rules and regulations have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most cases, many retail store owners don’t run into problems. However, SNAP 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 get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in fines, and penalties. If you conduct a major violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores don’t know SNAP violations are even occurring. In many situations, dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation attorney in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is delivered to your grocery store, you have only ten days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Your failure to respond to the allegations will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will deliver a verdict even though you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you cannot defend your store. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our lawyers can fight the findings 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 typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. The policy must be in writing and the policy must be when the violations were filed.

The store owner also has to be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in place before the charge, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA will also look in order to check if the owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or were aware of the violation. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any owner that gets 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.