Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Commerce City Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then may have gotten a letter of warning from the USDA. This letter is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you are in violation of the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, which will contain records of transactions that happened at your grocery store that the government claims is in violation of one or more groups of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you must contact our legal team. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you choose to ignore, the government will terminate/suspend your stores ability to accept EBT payments.

About The Program

This program helps families with funds to buy food each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed to consumers via an EBT card. The funds on this card are not for general use, and they can’t be used for cash back services. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued in the state which the SNAP participant lives. The SNAP program is run on a national level by the government.

This federal and it’s benefits are governed by the US Code and the Code of Federal Regulations. The USDA FNS agency enforces the regulations and runs the program.

What’s a SNAP Violation

Snap violations happen when a grocery store violates any of the rules below.

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

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

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

Your store took money for more EBT food stamps than food sales at the same time.

Your employees 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 experience handling SNAP appeals letters. Our team of attorneys can handle your SNAP violation process in all 3 phases of a SNAP violation action.

The charging letter is the initial step which is going to be taken by USDA to take away your EBT license. The letter can come with no warning and can happen at any time. The violation letter will contain allegations, but most of them will mention violations, and have attached documents detailing 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.

Once the USDA reviews your answer to the violation letter, the USDA may still feel that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, the USDA will issue a second letter that outlines the governments decision to suspend or disqualify the store based on the allegations set forth. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you don’t, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our firm, we file the legal papers to notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and our team will generate the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is needed to change the outcome of the violations.

If the USDA refuses to override the decision, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This process is like a normal court case, where you’ll have to do standard processes like discovery, file motions, and have a trial. Our attorneys 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 cases, many retail store owners don’t run into problems. However, the SNAP program can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limits on how the funds can be used. For example, SNAP recipients cant get electronic goods. If, and when, 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 it’s believed you did a serious SNAP violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, store owners didn’t know the violations are even happening. Often, unethical employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to consult with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is sent to your store, you have only ten days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Your failure to respond to the allegations will permanently crush your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will deliver a verdict even though 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 lawyers can challenge the findings of the USDA and fight any decision. The financial penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose chooses to impose huge 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 at the store and in effect at the time the violations were filed.

The store owner also has to be able to prove the compliance policy was in place before the charge, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA typically also looks in order to check if the grocery store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, 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 allegation 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.