Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Hoffman Estates Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then may have gotten a letter of warning from the USDA. The letter is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is alleging you violated the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, which will contain transactions that happened at your grocery store which the government is saying violates one or more genres of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you must contact our law firm. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you don’t respond, the government will suspend your stores ability to accept EBT payments.

About The SNAP Program

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

This program and it’s benefits 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 does it mean to have a SNAP violation

Snap violations happen 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 benefits, or theft of the benefits.

Your retail store accepted SNAP funds 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.

Your grocery store took money for more EBT food stamps than sale of actual food during the same period.

Your employees have taken SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t eligible to use the benefits.

How to defend your store against a SNAP violation

Our law firm has experience handling SNAP violations letters. Our team of attorneys can handle your SNAP violation process in all 3 phases of a SNAP violation action.

Sending the letter is the first step which is taken by the USDA USDA to remove your EBT license. This comes with, or without, prior warnings and can happen at any time. The charging letter has a variety of allegations, but most of them will mention serious allegations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. After 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 SNAP violation letter, the USDA may still decide that a violation has occurred. If that happens, they’ll will definitely send a second letter that specifically states the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the accusations previously mentioned. Like before, you have ten days to protest this verdict. If you choose not to, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our law firm, our team the necessary paperwork to notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and we will draft draft an appellate brief containing all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is necessary to change the outcome of the violations.

In the event the USDA refuses to change the binding decision, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This process is like a normal case, where you’ll be able to do discovery, file motions, and have a trial. Our attorneys can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a grocery store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, 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 buy electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can include fines and penalties. If it’s believed you did a serious SNAP violation, then you may end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores don’t know SNAP violations were even occurring. Often, dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP 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 store, you have only 10 days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Your failure to respond to the violations will permanently crush your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will make a verdict even if you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will challenge 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 purposefully does 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 must be in writing and the policy must be at the time the allegations were filed.

The grocery store also has to be able to prove the above mentioned 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 grocery store owners benefited from the violations, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store that gets a allegation letter consult 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.