Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Palatine 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 from the USDA. This notification is probably a SNAP violation letter, which is stating you violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, which will contain transactions which occurred at your store which the USDA is saying violates one or more genres of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you must speak to our our legal team. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you don’t respond, the USDA will terminate/suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT.

About The Program

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

The SNAP 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 counts as a SNAP violation

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

The retail store is accused oftrafficking SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

Your store submitted false information on the grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

Your store redeemed more coupons than sale of actual food over the same period.

The employees of the store accepted SNAP benefits from an unauthorized person who isn’t allowed to use the benefits.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Spodek Law Group has immense experience handling SNAP violations letters. Our law firm can handle your SNAP violation process in all phases of a SNAP violation action.

Sending the violation letter is the first step which is going to be taken by USDA to remove your right to take EBT benefits. This comes with no warning can come at any time. The violation letter has a variety of allegations, but most of them will detail violations, have evidence attached proving the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. Once 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.

After reviewing the store’s answer to the notice of violation, the USDA may still believe that a violation has occurred. If this happens, the USDA will issue another letter which outlines the governments legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the alleged violations. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you choose not to, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our law firm, we’ll file the appeal to notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and we will draft generate an appellate brief containing all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to change the outcome of the violations.

In the event the USDA refuses to override the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This process is like a normal federal court case, where you’ll have to do standard processes like 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 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 purchase electronic goods. If, and when, you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in fines, and penalties. If it’s believed you did a major SNAP violation, then you may end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, store owners didn’t know the violations are even occurring. In many situations, unethical employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to speak with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer 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 ten days to respond to the violations. Your failure to respond will permanently crush your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will deliver 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 the ability to fight for your rights. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will discredit the decision of the USDA and appeal any decision. The fines imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose does large fines to curb violations. The USDA will typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. It must be in writing at the store and in effect when the allegations were filed.

The store owner also be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in existence before the allegations, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. 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 management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended 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.