Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Enid Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then it’s possible have gotten a official warning from the USDA. The notice is probably 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 grocery store which the government claims violates one or more genres of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you should definitely contact our law firm. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you don’t respond, the USDA will suspend your grocery store’s ability to take EBT.

About The SNAP Program

This program helps families with a certain amount of money each month. These benefits are distributed through an EBT card. The funds on this card cannot legally be used for general usage, and they can’t be used for fraudulent cash back transactions. The cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued by each state individually which the SNAP participant lives. The program is operated on a national level by the federal government.

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

The retail store took part intrafficking SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

The store submitted incorrect info on the grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

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

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

How we can help defend you against a SNAP violation notice

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

Sending the letter is the initial step taken by the USDA to remove your EBT license. The letter can come with no warning and can appear at any time. The charging letter contain details about alleged violations, but most of them will lay out violations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. Once 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.

After reviewing the store’s answer to the notice of violation, the USDA may still decide that your store has violated the rules. If this happens, the USDA will 100% issue a second letter which outlines their decision to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the accusations previously mentioned. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you choose not to, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our firm, our team the necessary paperwork and notify the USDA appeal the decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and we will draft generate an appellate brief which contains all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is critical to fix the outcome.

If the USDA refuses to override the 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 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 are many laws which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, many grocery 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 probably get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If you conduct a major violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, store owners don’t even know SNAP violations were even occurring. In many situations, unethical employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to speak with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is sent to your grocery store, you only have 10 days to respond to the allegations. Your failure to respond to the allegations will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will deliver a verdict even if you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you cannot defend your store. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will discredit the findings of the USDA and fight any decision. The penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully does huge fines to curb violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. The policy has to be in writing at the store and in effect when the violations were filed.

The store owner must be able to prove the above mentioned 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 retail store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any grocery store owner that gets a allegation 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.