Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Redondo Beach Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then may have gotten a letter from the USDA. The letter is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is alleging you have violated the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, which will contain records of transactions which occurred at your grocery store that the USDA claims is in violation of one or more groups of violations.

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 don’t respond, the USDA will terminate/suspend your stores ability to accept EBT payments.

About The SNAP Program

This program helps families with get food each month. These benefits are distributed through an EBT card. The benefits on this card cannot legally be used 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 are issued by each state individually where the recipient lives. This program is run on a nationwide level by the federal government.

The SNAP program 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 occur if and when a retail store is in violation of the following rules.

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

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

The store submitted false info on the retail stores application to accept EBT benefits.

Your store took money for more coupons than actual food sales during the same period.

The employees of the store have taken SNAP benefits from someone who shouldn’t be 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 action.

The charging letter is the first step taken by the USDA to take away your right to take EBT benefits. The letter can come with no warning can come at any time. The violation letter contain details about alleged violations, but most letters will outline serious allegations, have evidence attached proving the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. After you hire our law firm, we take into their hands 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 may still feel that a violation has occurred. If this happens, they’ll will 100% issue a second letter which specifically states the governments legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the allegations set forth. Like before, you have 10 days to protest this decision. If you don’t, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, our team the necessary paperwork to notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and our team will generate the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to overturn the decision.

If the USDA refuses to override the legal decision, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This next phase is like a normal 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 you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, many grocery store owners have no issues 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 purchase electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can include fines and penalties. If you conduct a major violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, store owners don’t even know SNAP violations are even happening. Often, dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation 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 presented to your store, you have only 10 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. 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 lawyers will discredit the decision of the USDA and appeal any decision. The financial penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose imposes large fines to curb violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. The policy must be in writing at the store and the policy must be at the time the allegations were filed.

The grocery store must has to be able to prove the compliance 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 from the violations, or were aware of the violation. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store that gets a violation 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.