Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Mankato Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then it’s possible have received a letter of warning from the USDA. The letter is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is alleging you have violated the SNAP program. The USDA will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, and it will have transactions which happened at your store that the government claims is in violation of one or more groups of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation letter, 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 government will terminate/suspend your stores ability to accept EBT payments.

About The Program

This program provides families with funds to buy food each month. These benefits are given through an EBT card. The funds on this card cannot be used for general usage, and they cannot be used for fraudulent cash back services. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued in the state where the consumer lives. The program is run on a nationwide level by the federal government.

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

The store took part inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

Your store submitted incorrect information on your grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

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

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

How to defend your store against a SNAP violation

Spodek Law Group has 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 first step which is going to be taken by USDA to take away your EBT license. This comes with no warning and can appear at any time. The SNAP violation letter has a variety of allegations, but most of them will lay out 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 notice of violation, the USDA may still believe that your store has violated the rules. If this happens, they’ll will issue a second letter which outlines the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the store based on the allegations set forth. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you choose not to, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our firm, we’ll file the necessary paperwork to notify them appeal the decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and our team will draft an appellate brief containing all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is critical to fix the outcome.

In the event 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 next phase is like a normal case, where you’ll be able to do discovery, file motions, and have a trial. Our law firm can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a grocery store retailer, there are many laws which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, many retail store owners don’t run into problems. However, SNAP can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, people getting SNAP benefits cant get electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you’ll probably get 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, store owners don’t even know SNAP violations are even happening. In many situations, dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to speak with a SNAP violation attorney in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is presented to your store, you only have 10 days to respond to the allegations. Failure to respond will permanently crush your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will generate a verdict even though you choose not to respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you cannot defend your store. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our lawyers can discredit the decision 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 purposefully chooses to impose large fines to curb violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. It has to be in writing at the store and in effect when the violations were filed.

The store owner must has to be able to prove the compliance policy was in place before the charge, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA typically also looks in order to check if the retail store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or were aware of the violation. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any owner that receives a violation 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.