Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Farmington 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 notice is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is alleging you are in violation of the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, and it will have transactions that happened at your grocery store that the government claims violates one or more categories of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you should definitely speak to our our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the government will terminate/suspend your grocery store’s ability to accept EBT payments.

About The SNAP Program

This program provides families with get food each month. These benefits are given through an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on the card cannot legally be used for general use, and they cannot be used for cash back transactions. The cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued in the state where the recipient lives. This program is operated on a nationwide level by the government.

The government 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 if and when a retail store is in violation of the following rules.

The retail store was involved inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

Your store submitted false info on your store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

Your grocery store redeemed more coupons than actual food sales over the same period.

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

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Spodek Law Group has experience handling SNAP violations letters. Our law firm can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all phases of a SNAP action.

Sending the violation letter is the initial step which is taken by the USDA USDA to remove your EBT license. This comes with no warning and can happen at any time. The violation letter will contain allegations, but most of them will mention violations, have evidence attached proving the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. After you hire our law firm, 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 might still decide that a violation has occurred. If this happens, they’ll will issue a second letter which outlines the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have ten days to protest the decision. If you choose not to, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, we file the appeal and notify them appeal the decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and we will draft draft the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is critical to overturn the decision.

In the event the USDA refuses to change the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, we’ll 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. We 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 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 purchase electronic goods. If, and when, you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in fines, and penalties. If it’s believed you did a serious violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores don’t know SNAP violations are even occurring. In many situations, dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to consult with a SNAP violation lawyer in order to ensure 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. 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. Without legal experience, you cannot defend your store. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers can fight the decision of the USDA and appeal any decision. 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 has to be in writing and in effect at the time the allegations were filed.

The store owner also be able to prove the compliance policy was in place before the charge, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA will also look in order to check if the 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 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.