Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Bullhead City Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then you might have been the recipient of a a letter of warning from the USDA. The notification is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is stating you are in violation of the SNAP program. The USDA will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, and it will contain records of transactions that happened at your store which the government is saying violates one or more groups of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you must contact our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you don’t respond, the USDA will terminate/suspend your grocery store’s ability to take EBT.

About The SNAP Program

The SNAP program helps families with money each month. These benefits are distributed through an EBT card. The funds on the card aren’t for general usage, and they can’t be used for cash back services. The cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued by each state individually where the recipient lives. The SNAP program is operated on a nationwide level by the federal government.

The SNAP federal and the benefits that come with it 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 when a store violates any of the rules below.

The store took part inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting 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 incorrect information on the store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

Your store redeemed more EBT food stamps than 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

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

Sending the letter is the initial step taken by the USDA to remove your right to take EBT benefits. The letter can come with, or without, prior warnings can come at any time. The violation letter will contain 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.

Once the USDA reviews your answer to the notice of violation, the USDA may still believe that your store has violated the rules. If this happens, they’ll will issue another letter which outlines the governments decision to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the accusations previously mentioned. Like before, you have 10 days to protest this decision. If you don’t, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, we’ll file the necessary paperwork to notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and our team will generate an appellate brief containing all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is critical to change the outcome of the violations.

If the USDA refuses to overturn the legal decision, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This process is like a normal 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 grocery store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, many retail store owners don’t run into problems. However, SNAP can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, SNAP recipients 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 you conduct a major violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, store owners didn’t know the violations were even occurring. Often, it’s dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to consult with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is delivered to your store, you have only ten days to respond to the claims. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently crush your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will deliver 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 lawyers will discredit the findings 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 huge fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. The policy must be in writing and in effect 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 owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store owner that receives 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.