Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Marysville Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then it’s possible have received a letter from the USDA. This notification is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is claiming you violated the SNAP program. The USDA will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, and it will contain transactions that happened at your store that the government is saying violates one or more groups of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you should definitely contact our legal team. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT.

About The Program

The SNAP program helps families with money each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed with an EBT card. The funds on the EBT card cannot legally be used for general use, and they cannot be used for fraudulent cash back transactions. The cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued by each state individually which the SNAP participant lives. The SNAP program is run on a national level by the government.

The SNAP government and it’s parameters are governed 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 when a retail store is in violation of the rules below.

The store is accused ofthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

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

Your grocery store redeemed more coupons than actual food sales during the same period.

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

How to defend your store against a SNAP violation

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

Sending the violation letter is the initial step which is going to be taken by USDA to take away your EBT license. This letter may come with, or without, prior warnings can come at any time. The violation letter contain details about alleged violations, but most letters will outline serious allegations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. After you hire Spodek Law Group, we 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 SNAP violation letter, the USDA might still feel that a violation has occurred. If this happens, they’ll will issue another letter that outlines their decision to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the alleged violations. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you don’t, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our firm, our team the legal papers to notify the government appeal the decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and our team will draft the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is critical to overturn the decision.

In the event the USDA refuses to overturn the legal decision, 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 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 grocery store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations you have to adhere to for 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, people getting SNAP benefits cant purchase electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If you conduct a serious violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, store owners don’t even know the violations are even occurring. Often, unethical employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to speak with a SNAP violation attorney to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is sent to your grocery store, you have only ten days to respond to the allegations. Your failure to respond will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will deliver 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 a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will discredit the decision of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose imposes large fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. The policy has to be in writing at the store and in effect at the time the allegations were filed.

The store owner must has to be able to prove the compliance policy was in existence before the allegations, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA will also look in order to check if the owners benefited from the violations, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any grocery 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.