Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Bartlett Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then you might have gotten a letter from the USDA. This letter is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is alleging you are in violation of the SNAP program. The USDA will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, and it will have records of transactions that happened at your retail store which the government is saying violates one or more groups of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you must contact our law firm. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you don’t respond, the government will terminate/suspend your grocery store’s ability to accept EBT.

About The SNAP Program

The SNAP program provides families with get food each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed via an EBT card. The funds on the EBT card aren’t for general usage, and they cannot 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. The SNAP program is run on a national level by the federal government.

This federal and it’s benefits are governed 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 legal violations occur if and when a store violates any of the following rules.

The retail store is accused ofthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

Your store submitted false information on the store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

The grocery store took money for more EBT food stamps than sale of actual food during the same period.

Your employees took SNAP benefits from an unauthorized person who isn’t allowed to use the benefits.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Our law firm has experience managing SNAP violations letters. We can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP action.

Sending the violation letter is the initial step which is taken by the USDA USDA to take away your EBT license. The letter can come with, or without, prior warnings can come at any time. The SNAP violation letter contain details about alleged violations, but most of them will detail violations, with an attachment of details. You have only 10 days to respond. After 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 violation letter, the USDA might still decide that a violation has occurred. If this happens, they’ll will definitely send another letter that outlines their decision to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have 10 days to protest this decision. If you don’t, then you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our firm, our team the appeal to notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and we will draft draft an appellate brief which contains all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is critical to change the outcome of the violations.

In the event the USDA refuses to change the binding decision, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This next phase is like a normal federal court 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 food store retailer, there are many laws which you have to adhere to for 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, SNAP recipients 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 and business crushing penalties. If you conduct a major SNAP violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores didn’t even know SNAP violations were even happening. In many situations, unethical employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation attorney in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is delivered to your store, you only have 10 days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Failure to respond to the violations will permanently crush your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will generate a verdict even though you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you cannot defend your store. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will fight the findings 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 does large fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. The policy has to be in writing at the store and the policy must be when the allegations were filed.

The store owner also be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in place before the charge, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA will also look in order to check if the retail store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. If the managers were 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.