Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Camarillo Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then you might have been the recipient of a a letter of warning from the USDA. This letter is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you violated the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, and it will contain records of transactions that happened at your store which the government is saying is in violation of one or more groups of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you should definitely contact our law firm. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you don’t respond, the government will suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT.

About The Program

This program helps families with a certain amount of money each month. The SNAP program benefits are given with an EBT card. The benefits on this card cannot legally be used 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. This program is operated on a national level by the federal government.

The SNAP program and it’s benefits are under handled 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 occur when a store is in violation of the rules below.

The retail store is accused ofthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

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

Your grocery store redeemed more coupons than food sales over the same period.

Your employees took SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t eligible 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 appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP action.

The charging letter is the initial step which is going to be taken by USDA to remove your right to take EBT benefits. This comes with no warning and can appear at any time. The charging letter has a variety of allegations, but most letters will lay out serious allegations, and have attached documents detailing 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 feel that a violation has occurred. If this happens, the USDA will 100% issue another letter that outlines the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the store based on the accusations previously mentioned. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you choose not to, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our firm, we file the necessary paperwork to notify the government appeal the decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and our team will generate the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is needed to overturn the decision.

In the event the USDA refuses to overturn the decision, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This process is like a normal case, where you’ll have to do standard processes like 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 you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, 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, people getting SNAP benefits cant purchase electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe fines. If you conduct a major violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores don’t even know the violations were even occurring. Often, dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to discuss your case with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is sent to your store, you have only 10 days to respond to the violations. Your failure to respond to the allegations will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will deliver a verdict even though 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 SNAP appeals lawyers can discredit the findings of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully 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. It must 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 compliance policy was in place before the charge, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA typically also looks in order to see if the owners benefited from the violations, or were aware of the violation. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any owner that receives a violation letter consult 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.