Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Blue Springs Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then may have received a notice from the USDA. This letter is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is stating you have violated the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, and it will contain records of transactions that happened at your retail store which the USDA is saying is in violation of one or more genres of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you should definitely speak to our our legal team. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you don’t respond, the USDA will suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT.

About The SNAP Program

This program provides families with money each month. The SNAP program benefits are given via an EBT card. The benefits on the card aren’t for general use, and they cannot be used for fraudulent cash back services. The EBT cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued by each state individually where the consumer lives. The SNAP program is run on a nationwide level by the federal government.

The SNAP federal 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 legal violations occur if and when a retail store is in violation of the rules below.

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

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

The store submitted incorrect info on the grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

Your store redeemed more EBT food stamps than actual food sales over the same period.

Your employees took SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t allowed to use them.

How to defend your store against a SNAP violation

Our law firm has immense experience handling SNAP violation letters. Our law firm can handle your SNAP violation process in all phases of a SNAP violation action.

Sending the violation letter is the initial step taken by the USDA to take away your right to take EBT benefits. The letter can come with no warning can come at any time. The charging letter has a variety of allegations, but most of them will detail serious allegations, have evidence attached proving the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. Once you hire Spodek Law Group, we handle 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 notice of violation, the USDA might still believe that a violation has occurred. If this happens, the USDA will issue a second letter which specifically states the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have 10 days to appeal the decision. If you choose not to, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our lawyers, our team the necessary paperwork to notify them appeal the decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and our team will generate an appellate brief which contains all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to fix the outcome.

If the USDA refuses to change the legal decision, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This next phase 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’s a lot of rules and regulations which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, many grocery store owners have no issues adhering to them. However, the SNAP program can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, people getting SNAP benefits cant buy electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If it’s believed you did a serious SNAP violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, store owners didn’t even know the violations were even occurring. Often, it’s dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation attorney to make 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. Failure to respond will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will deliver a verdict even if you don’t respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers can fight the decision 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 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. The policy must be in writing and in effect when the violations were filed.

The retailer 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 to see if the 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.

We highly recommend any store that gets a allegation 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.