Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

St. Louis Park Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then may have received a official warning from the USDA. The letter is probably a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you have violated the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, which will contain records of transactions which happened at your retail store that the government is saying violates one or more categories of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you should speak to our our legal team. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you don’t respond, the USDA will suspend your stores ability to accept EBT.

About The SNAP Program

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

The SNAP 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 counts as a SNAP violation

Snap violations happen if and when a retail store violates any of the rules below.

The retail store is accused ofthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

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

Your store took money for more EBT food stamps than sale of actual food at the same time.

The employees of the store took SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t allowed to use them.

How we can help defend you against a SNAP violation notice

Spodek Law Group has immense experience managing SNAP violation letters. Our law firm can handle your SNAP violation process in all 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 letter may come with no warning and can appear at any time. The charging letter has a variety of 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 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.

After reviewing the store’s answer to the notice of violation, the USDA might still believe that a violation has occurred. If that happens, the USDA will issue a second letter which outlines their decision to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have 10 days to protest this verdict. If you don’t, then you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our law firm, we file the legal papers to notify the government appeal the decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and our team will generate an appellate brief containing all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is necessary to overturn the decision.

If the USDA refuses to change the binding decision, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This process is like a normal 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 normal situations, many retail store owners have no problems adhering to them. 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 buy electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can include fines and penalties. If you conduct a serious violation, then you may end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, store owners didn’t know the violations are even occurring. In many situations, it’s dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to discuss your case with a SNAP violation attorney in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is delivered to your grocery store, you have only 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 if you choose not to respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you cannot defend your store. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our lawyers will challenge the findings of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The penalties imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully chooses to impose huge fines to curb violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. The policy must be in writing at the store and in effect when the allegations were filed.

The retailer also has to be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in place before the charge, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA typically also looks in order to check if the retail store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any owner 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.