Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Edina Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then you might have gotten a official notice from the USDA. The notice is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is alleging you have violated the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, which will contain transactions which occurred at your store that the USDA is saying is in violation of one or more genres of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you should definitely speak to our our law firm. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you don’t respond, the government will suspend your grocery store’s ability to accept EBT payments.

About The Program

This program helps families with funds to buy food each month. These benefits are distributed to consumers through an EBT card. The funds on the EBT card aren’t for general use, and they cannot be used for cash back transactions. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued in the state where the consumer lives. This program is run on a national level by the government.

The SNAP federal 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’s a SNAP Violation

SNAP legal violations happen when a grocery store violates any of the following rules.

The grocery store was involved intrafficking 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.

Your store submitted false info on the retail stores application to accept EBT benefits.

The grocery store redeemed more EBT food stamps than sale of actual food during the same period.

The employees of the store have taken 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 handling SNAP appeals letters. Our law firm can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all phases of a SNAP action.

Sending the letter is the first step which is going to be taken by USDA to remove your right to take EBT benefits. The letter can come with, or without, prior warnings can come at any time. The SNAP violation letter will contain allegations, but most of them will outline serious allegations, with an attachment of details. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. After you hire Spodek Law Group, we handle 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 SNAP violation letter, the USDA might still feel that a violation has occurred. If this happens, they’ll will definitely send another letter which outlines their legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the store based on the allegations set forth. Like before, you have ten days to protest this decision. If you don’t, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our law firm, we file the legal papers to notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and we will draft generate an appellate brief containing all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is critical to fix the outcome.

In the event the USDA refuses to overturn the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This next phase 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 have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most cases, many grocery store owners don’t run into problems. However, USDA’s 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 purchase 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 violation, then you may end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, store owners don’t even know the violations were even occurring. Often, unethical employees who are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to discuss your case with a SNAP violation lawyer to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is presented to your store, you only have 10 days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Failure to respond to the violations will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will generate a verdict even though you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you cannot defend your store. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers can discredit the decision of the USDA and appeal any decision. The financial penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully imposes large fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. The policy must be in writing and the policy must be when the violations were filed.

The retailer also be able to prove the compliance policy was in existence before the allegations, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA will also look in order to see if the 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 owner that gets a allegation letter consult 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.