Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Evanston Snap Violation Lawyers

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

After you get a SNAP violation letter, you should speak to our our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you don’t respond, the government will terminate/suspend your stores ability to take EBT.

About The Program

The SNAP program helps families with money each month. The SNAP program benefits are given with an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on the card are not for general usage, and they can’t be used for fraudulent cash back transactions. The EBT cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued by each state individually which the SNAP participant lives. The SNAP program is operated on a nationwide level by the federal government.

The program and it’s parameters 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 does it mean to have a SNAP violation

Snap violations happen when a store violates any of the rules below.

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

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

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

The store took money for more EBT food stamps than actual food sales at the same time.

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

How to defend your store against a SNAP violation

Spodek Law Group has experience managing SNAP violation letters. We can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP 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 charging letter will contain allegations, but most letters will mention serious allegations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. After you hire our law firm, our lawyers handle 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 violation letter, the USDA might still decide that a violation has occurred. If that happens, they’ll will 100% issue a second letter that specifically states their legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the allegations set forth. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you don’t, then you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, we’ll file the appeal to notify the government appeal the decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and we will draft draft an appellate brief which contains all of the case law, evidence, etc. which is critical to change the outcome of the violations.

If 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. We can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a food store retailer, there are many laws which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, many retail store owners have no problems adhering to them. However, USDA’s SNAP program can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, SNAP recipients cant buy electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe fines. If it’s believed you did a major SNAP violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores didn’t know the violations were even occurring. Often, dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to discuss your case with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is delivered to your store, you only have ten days to respond to the allegations. Your failure to respond to the violations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will make a verdict even if you choose not to respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers can challenge the findings of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The 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. The policy has to be in writing at the store and in effect when the violations were filed.

The retailer must 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 to check if the owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store 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.