Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Diamond Bar Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then you might have received a official warning from the USDA. This notice is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is alleging you have violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, and it will contain transactions which occurred at your grocery store that the government is saying violates one or more genres of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you must contact our law firm. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will suspend your grocery store’s ability to accept EBT.

About The SNAP Program

This program provides families with funds to buy food each month. These benefits are distributed through an EBT card. The funds on the EBT card are not for general use, and they can’t be used for cash back transactions. The EBT cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued by each state individually which the SNAP participant lives. The SNAP program is operated on a national level by the federal government.

This government and it’s benefits 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 legal violations happen if and when a grocery store violates any of the rules below.

The grocery store was involved intrafficking SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting the benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

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

Your grocery store took money for more coupons than actual food sales during the same period.

Your employees took 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 experience handling SNAP violation 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 which is going to be taken by USDA to remove your EBT license. This letter may come with no warning can come at any time. The SNAP violation letter will have allegations in it, but most of them will detail violations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. Once you hire Spodek Law Group, 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.

Once the USDA reviews your answer to the violation letter, the USDA may still decide that a violation has occurred. If this happens, they’ll will 100% issue a second letter which specifically states the governments decision to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have 10 days to appeal the verdict. If you don’t, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our lawyers, our team the appeal and notify them appeal the decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and our team will draft an appellate brief containing all of the case law, evidence, etc. which is necessary to overturn the decision.

If the USDA refuses to change the decision, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This process is like a normal court case, where you’ll have to do standard processes like 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 are many laws which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, many grocery store owners have no problems adhering to them. However, USDA’s SNAP program can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, SNAP recipients cant get electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can include fines and penalties. If you conduct a major violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores don’t know the violations were even happening. In many situations, unethical employees are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to consult with a SNAP violation appeals 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 claims by the USDA. Failure to respond to the violations will permanently crush your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will deliver a verdict even if you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our lawyers can challenge the decision of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The fines imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully imposes large fines to curb violations. The USDA will typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. The policy must be in writing and the policy must be at the time the violations were filed.

The grocery store also be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in existence before the allegations, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA will also look in order to see if the retail store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store owner that gets 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.