Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Cedar Park Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then you might have received a letter of warning from the USDA. This notification is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is stating you are in violation of the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, which will have transactions that occurred at your store which the USDA claims violates one or more genres of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you should definitely speak to our our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will terminate/suspend your stores privilege to take EBT.

About The Program

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

The SNAP government 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 legal violations occur if and when a grocery store is in violation of the rules below.

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

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

The store submitted incorrect info on your store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

The store took money for more coupons than food sales over the same period.

The employees of the store accepted SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t allowed to use them.

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 3 phases of a SNAP action.

Sending the violation letter is the initial step which is going to be taken by USDA to take away your right to take EBT benefits. The letter can come with no warning and can appear at any time. The SNAP violation letter contain details about alleged violations, but most of them will mention violations, have evidence attached proving the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. 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.

Once the USDA reviews your answer to the notice of violation, the USDA might still believe that a violation has occurred. If that happens, the USDA will definitely send a second letter which specifically states the governments legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have 10 days to protest this verdict. 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 USDA we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and we will draft generate an appellate brief which contains all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is needed to overturn the decision.

In the event the USDA refuses to change the legal decision, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This next phase is like a normal 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 have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most cases, many grocery store owners have no problems adhering to them. However, SNAP can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, people getting SNAP benefits cant buy electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can include fines and penalties. If you conduct a serious violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores don’t even know the violations were even happening. Often, unethical employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to discuss your case with a SNAP violation lawyer in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is sent to your store, you only have ten days to respond to the claims. Your failure to respond to the allegations will permanently crush your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will make a verdict even though 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 SNAP appeals lawyers can discredit the decision of the USDA and fight any penalties. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose does large fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. It has to be in writing and in effect when the violations were filed.

The store owner also be able to prove the compliance policy was in existence before the allegations, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA typically also looks to see if the retail store 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 receives 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.