Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Northglenn Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then you might have received a official notice from the USDA. The notice is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is stating you violated the SNAP program. The USDA will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, which will contain records of transactions which happened at your store which the government is saying is in violation of one or more genres of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation letter, you must contact our law firm. 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 accept EBT payments.

About The SNAP Program

The SNAP program helps families with get food each month. These benefits are distributed with an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on this card aren’t for general use, and they can’t be used for cash back services. The 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 operated on a national level by the 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 does it mean to have a SNAP violation

SNAP legal violations occur if and when a store violates any of the rules below.

The retail store was involved inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

The store submitted incorrect information on the store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

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

The employees of the store have taken SNAP benefits from an unauthorized person who isn’t allowed to use the benefits.

How we can help defend you against a SNAP violation notice

Spodek Law Group has immense experience handling SNAP appeals letters. Our team of attorneys can handle your SNAP violation process in all phases of a SNAP violation action.

Sending the letter is the initial step taken by the USDA to remove your EBT license. This letter may come with no warning and can happen at any time. The charging letter will have allegations in it, but most letters will detail serious allegations, have evidence attached proving the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. Once you hire Spodek Law Group, 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 SNAP violation letter, the USDA may still feel that a violation has occurred. If that happens, the USDA will definitely send a second letter that outlines the agencies legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have ten days to appeal this verdict. If you don’t, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our law firm, we’ll file the appeal to notify the USDA appeal the decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and we will draft generate an appellate brief containing all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is critical to overturn the decision.

In the event the USDA refuses to override 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 federal court case, where you’ll have to do standard processes like 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 have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most normal situations, many grocery store owners don’t run into problems. However, the SNAP program can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, people getting SNAP benefits cant buy electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If you conduct a major violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores don’t know SNAP violations were even occurring. Often, unethical employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to consult with a SNAP violation attorney in order to ensure 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. Your 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 don’t respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our lawyers will discredit the decision of the USDA and appeal any decision. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose imposes large fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. It must be in writing and the policy must be at the time the allegations were filed.

The store owner also has to be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in existence before the allegations, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA typically also looks to see if the grocery store owners benefited from the violations, or were aware of the violation. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store that gets a allegation 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.