Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Concord Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then you might have received a official warning from the USDA. This notification is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you violated the SNAP program. The USDA will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, and it will have records of transactions that occurred at your store that the USDA is saying violates one or more categories of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you must speak to our our law firm. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT payments.

About The Program

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

This program and it’s parameters 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 legal violations occur if and when a grocery store violates any of the rules below.

The grocery store is accused ofthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

The grocery store accepted SNAP benefits 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 store took money for more coupons than actual food sales at the same time.

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

How we can help defend you against a SNAP violation notice

Spodek Law Group has experience handling SNAP appeals letters. Our law firm can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP violation action.

Sending the letter is the first step taken by the USDA to remove your right to take EBT benefits. This comes with, or without, prior warnings 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 Spodek Law Group, our lawyers 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 believe that your store has violated the rules. If this happens, the USDA will issue another letter that specifically states the governments decision to suspend or disqualify the store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have 10 days to protest the verdict. If you don’t, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our law firm, we file the appeal to notify them we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and we will draft draft the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is critical to change the outcome of the violations.

If the USDA refuses to override 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 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 you have to adhere to for 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 get electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe fines. If you conduct a serious violation, then you may end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, store owners didn’t know SNAP violations are even happening. Often, unethical employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to consult with a SNAP violation attorney in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is sent to your grocery store, you have only ten days to respond to the violations. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will deliver a verdict even though you choose not to 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 discredit 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 purposefully imposes large fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. It must be in writing at the store and the policy must be at the time the allegations were filed.

The retailer 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 will also look in order to see if the retail store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. Any involvement of the management 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.