Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Belleville Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then may have received a official notice from the USDA. This letter is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is alleging you have violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, and it will have transactions that happened at your retail store which the government claims is in violation of 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. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you don’t respond, the government will terminate/suspend your grocery store’s ability to accept EBT.

About The Program

This program helps families with get food each month. These benefits are given through an EBT card. The funds on the EBT card cannot legally be used for general usage, and they can’t be used for fraudulent cash back services. The EBT 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 run on a nationwide level by the government.

This program and it’s parameters 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 counts as a SNAP violation

SNAP legal violations happen if and when a store is in violation of the rules below.

The retail store was involved intrafficking SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting the benefits, or stealing 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 your store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

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

The employees of the store have taken 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 handling SNAP appeals letters. Our law firm can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP Violation action.

The charging letter is the initial step taken by the USDA to take away your EBT license. This comes with no warning and can appear at any time. The charging letter contain details about alleged violations, but most of them will outline violations, with an attachment of details. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. Once you hire our law firm, we 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 violation letter, the USDA might still feel that a violation has occurred. If this happens, the USDA will 100% issue another letter which outlines the governments legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the allegations set forth. Like before, you have 10 days to appeal this verdict. If you don’t, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our lawyers, we’ll file the legal papers to notify them appeal the decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and we will draft generate an appellate brief containing all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is necessary to overturn the decision.

If the USDA refuses to overturn the legal decision, 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 grocery store owners don’t run into problems. However, SNAP 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. If you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe fines. If it’s believed you did a major violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores don’t even know SNAP violations were even happening. Often, 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 ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is sent to your store, you have only ten days to respond to the claims. Failure to respond will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will generate a verdict even though you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will discredit the findings of the USDA and fight any decision. The financial penalties imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose does huge fines to curb violations. The USDA will typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. The policy has to 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 compliance policy was in place before the charge, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA typically also looks in order to see if the retail store owners benefited from the violations, or were aware of the violation. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended 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.