Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Coppell Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then it’s possible have gotten a letter of warning from the USDA. This letter is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is claiming you have violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, which will have records of transactions that occurred at your store which the government claims violates one or more groups 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 government will suspend your grocery store’s ability to take EBT.

About The Program

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

This government and the benefits that come with it 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 legal violations happen if and when a store is in violation of the following rules.

The store took part 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.

The store submitted incorrect information on the grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

Your grocery store took money for more EBT food stamps than food sales over the same period.

Your employees accepted SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t allowed to use them.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Spodek Law Group has immense experience managing SNAP appeals letters. Our team of attorneys can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP violation 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 appear at any time. The violation letter will have allegations in it, but most letters will lay out violations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. After 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 notice of violation, the USDA may still believe that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, they’ll will issue a second letter that outlines their legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the store based on the accusations previously mentioned. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you don’t, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, our team the appeal and notify them we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and we will draft generate an appellate brief containing all of the case law, evidence, etc. which is necessary to overturn the decision.

If the USDA refuses to change the decision, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District 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’s a lot of rules and regulations 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 limitations. For example, SNAP recipients cant purchase electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in fines, and penalties. If you conduct a major SNAP violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores didn’t know the violations are even occurring. Often, it’s dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to speak with a SNAP violation attorney to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is presented to your store, you have only ten days to respond to the allegations. Failure to respond will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will deliver 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 the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers can discredit the decision of the USDA and fight any decision. The fines imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose imposes large fines to curb 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 when the allegations were filed.

The retailer must be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in existence before the allegations, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA will also look to see if the retail store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store that receives a 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.