Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Delaware Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then you might have received a notice from the USDA. This notice is most likely 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 notice, and it will have records of transactions which happened at your grocery store which the government is saying is in violation of one or more genres of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you should definitely 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 terminate/suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT payments.

About The Program

This program provides families with money each month. The SNAP program benefits are given with an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on the EBT card cannot be used for general usage, and they can’t be used for cash back transactions. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued in the state where the consumer lives. The program is operated on a national level by the federal 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 does it mean to have a SNAP violation

SNAP legal violations occur when a grocery store is in violation of the following rules.

The retail store took part inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

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

Your grocery store redeemed more EBT food stamps than sale of actual food at the same time.

The employees of the store accepted SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t allowed to use them.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Spodek Law Group has experience managing SNAP violations letters. Our team of attorneys can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP action.

Sending the letter is the initial step which is taken by the USDA USDA to remove your right to take EBT benefits. The letter can come with, or without, prior warnings and can appear at any time. The SNAP violation letter contain details about alleged violations, but most of them will mention serious allegations, have evidence attached proving the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. Once you hire our law firm, 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 SNAP violation letter, the USDA may still feel that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, the USDA will issue another letter that outlines the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the store based on the accusations previously mentioned. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you choose not to, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, we file the legal papers and notify them we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and we will draft draft the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is necessary to overturn the decision.

In the event the USDA refuses to change 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 federal court case, where you’ll be able to do 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 which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, many retail store owners have no issues adhering to them. However, SNAP can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limits on how the funds can be used. For example, people getting SNAP benefits cant buy electronic goods. If, and when, you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can include fines and penalties. If it’s believed you did a major violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, store owners didn’t even know the violations are even occurring. In many situations, it’s dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to discuss your case with a SNAP violation attorney to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is presented to your retail store, you only have 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 make 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 the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers can discredit the findings of the USDA and fight any decision. The penalties imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully imposes huge 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 in effect at the time the allegations were filed.

The grocery store 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 will also look to check if the retail store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or were aware of the violation. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any owner that receives 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.