Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Abilene Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then may have been the recipient of a a notice from the USDA. The notification is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is alleging you have violated the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, which will have transactions which occurred at your store which the government is saying is in violation of one or more categories of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you should speak to our our law firm. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you don’t respond, the USDA will terminate/suspend your stores ability to take EBT.

About The Program

The SNAP program helps families with a certain amount of money each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed to consumers through an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on this card cannot legally be used for general usage, and they cannot be used for cash back transactions. The cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued in the state which the SNAP participant lives. The program is run 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 counts as a SNAP violation

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

The retail store was involved intrafficking SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting the benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

Your store submitted false info on your store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

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

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

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

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

The charging letter is the first step taken by the USDA to remove your EBT license. This comes with no warning and can happen at any time. The SNAP violation 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, we 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 believe that your store has violated the rules. If this happens, the USDA will 100% issue another letter that specifically states their legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the accusations previously mentioned. Like before, you have ten days to appeal the verdict. If you choose not to, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our firm, we’ll file the appeal and notify them appeal the decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and we will draft generate the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to overturn the decision.

If the USDA refuses to override the decision, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. The Judicial Appeal is like a normal federal court case, where you’ll be able to do discovery, file motions, and have a trial. Our lawyers 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 cases, many retail store owners have no issues adhering to them. However, the SNAP program 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 get electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can include fines and penalties. If it’s believed you did a serious SNAP violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores don’t know the violations are even occurring. Often, dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to discuss your case with a SNAP violation attorney in order to make 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 claims. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will make a verdict even if you choose not to respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers will fight 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 does huge 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 in effect at the time the violations were filed.

The retailer 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 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.

It’s highly recommended any grocery store 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.