Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Buckeye Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then may have been the recipient of a a official notice from the USDA. This letter is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is stating you are in violation of the SNAP program. The USDA will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, which will contain transactions that happened at your grocery store which the government claims is in violation of one or more genres of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, 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 grocery store’s ability to take EBT.

About The SNAP Program

This program provides families with money each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed to consumers via an EBT card. The funds on the EBT card cannot be used for general use, and they cannot be used for fraudulent cash back services. The cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued in the state where the consumer lives. This program is operated on a national level by the government.

This government and the benefits that come with it 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 does it mean to have a SNAP violation

Snap violations occur if and when a grocery store violates any of the following rules.

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

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

The store submitted false info on your 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.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Spodek Law Group has immense experience managing SNAP appeals letters. We can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP Violation action.

The charging letter is the first step taken by the USDA to remove your right to take EBT benefits. This comes with, or without, prior warnings can come at any time. The charging letter will have allegations in it, but most of them will detail serious allegations, have evidence attached proving the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. After you hire Spodek Law Group, 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 notice of violation, the USDA may still decide that a violation has occurred. If this happens, the USDA will definitely send another letter that outlines the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have 10 days to appeal this verdict. If you choose not to, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, we file the necessary paperwork to notify them appeal the decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and we will draft draft the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is necessary to change the outcome of the violations.

In the event the USDA refuses to change the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. The Judicial Appeal is like a normal 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 grocery store retailer, there are many laws have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most cases, many grocery store owners have no issues adhering to them. 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. If you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe fines. If it’s believed you did a serious SNAP violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, store owners don’t even know SNAP violations are even occurring. In many situations, it’s dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to consult with a SNAP violation attorney in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is presented to your store, you only have ten days to respond to the allegations. Your failure to respond to the allegations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will deliver a verdict even though you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you cannot defend your store. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers can discredit the decision of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The financial penalties 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 typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. It has to be in writing at the store and the policy must be when the allegations were filed.

The store owner also be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in existence before the allegations, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA typically also looks in order to see if the retail store owners benefited from the violations, 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 violation letter speak to with a SNAP violation attorney. Failure can result 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.