Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Blaine Snap Violation Lawyers

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

After you get a SNAP violation letter, you should definitely contact our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you don’t respond, the government will suspend your stores ability to accept EBT payments.

About The Program

This program helps families with a certain amount of money each month. These benefits are distributed to consumers 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 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 operated on a national level by the federal government.

The SNAP program and it’s parameters are governed by the United States Code and the Code of Federal Regulations. The USDA FNS agency enforces the regulations and runs the program.

What’s a SNAP Violation

Snap violations occur if and when a grocery store is in violation of the rules below.

The grocery store took part intrafficking SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

Your store submitted false information on the retail stores application to accept EBT benefits.

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

Your employees have taken SNAP benefits from someone who shouldn’t be allowed to use the benefits.

How to defend your store against a SNAP violation

Spodek Law Group has experience handling SNAP violations letters. Our law firm can handle your SNAP violation process in all 3 phases of a SNAP Violation action.

Sending the violation letter is the first step taken by the USDA to remove your EBT license. This comes with no warning and can appear at any time. The SNAP violation letter will contain allegations, but most letters will mention serious allegations, with an attachment of details. You have only 10 days to respond. 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 your store has violated the rules. If that happens, they’ll will issue another letter that outlines their decision to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the accusations previously mentioned. Like before, you have ten days to protest this verdict. If you don’t, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our firm, we file the legal papers to notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and we will draft draft an appellate brief containing all of the case law, evidence, etc. which is needed to overturn the decision.

If the USDA refuses to change the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. The Judicial Appeal is like a normal 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 food store retailer, there are many laws which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, many retail 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 get electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe fines. If you conduct a major SNAP violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, store owners don’t know the violations are even happening. Often, dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to consult with a SNAP violation lawyer in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is delivered to your store, you only have ten days to respond to the allegations. Your failure to respond to the violations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will deliver a verdict even if you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you cannot defend your store. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers can challenge the decision of the USDA and fight any penalties. The financial penalties imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose chooses to impose 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 has to be in writing and the policy must be when the violations were filed.

The store owner must 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 from the violations, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any store owner that receives a letter consult 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.