Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Fairfield Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then may have been the recipient of a a letter from the USDA. This letter is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is stating you violated the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, which will contain transactions that occurred at your retail store which the USDA is saying is in violation of one or more genres of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you must speak to our our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT payments.

About The Program

This program provides families with a certain amount of money each month. The SNAP program benefits are given through an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on the EBT card cannot be used for general usage, and they can’t be used for cash back services. The cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued in the state which the SNAP participant lives. The program is run on a national level by the federal government.

This program and it’s parameters 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 occur when a grocery store is in violation of the rules below.

The store took part intrafficking SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting the 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 information on the retail stores application to accept EBT benefits.

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

Your employees have taken SNAP benefits from someone who shouldn’t be allowed to use the benefits.

How we can help defend you against a SNAP violation notice

Spodek Law Group has experience handling SNAP violations letters. Our team of attorneys can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP action.

The charging letter is the initial step which is going to be taken by USDA to take away your right to take EBT benefits. This letter may come with no warning and can happen at any time. The charging letter contain details about alleged violations, but most of them will outline violations, have evidence attached proving 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 feel that your store has violated the rules. If this happens, the USDA will issue a second letter which outlines the agencies legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the allegations set forth. Like before, you have ten days to protest the decision. If you don’t, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our firm, our team the necessary paperwork to notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and our team will draft the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is necessary to overturn the decision.

If the USDA refuses to change the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This next phase is like a normal federal court 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 food store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations 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 limitations. For example, SNAP recipients cant get electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can include fines and penalties. If it’s believed you did a serious SNAP violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores don’t even know SNAP violations are even happening. Often, dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to discuss your case with a SNAP violation attorney to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is delivered to your store, you only have ten days to respond to the allegations. Failure to respond will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will make a verdict even though 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 a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will challenge the findings of the USDA and fight any penalties. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose does large fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. It must be in writing and the policy must be at the time the violations were filed.

The grocery store must 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 to check if the grocery store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or were aware of the violation. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store that receives 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.