Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Carmel Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then may have been the recipient of a a letter of warning from the USDA. This notification is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is claiming you are in violation of the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, which will contain transactions that happened at your retail store which the USDA is saying violates one or more groups of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you should speak to our our law firm. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you choose to ignore, the government will terminate/suspend your stores ability to accept EBT.

About The Program

The SNAP program provides families with funds to buy food each month. These benefits are distributed to consumers with an EBT card. The benefits on the EBT card cannot legally be used for general usage, and they cannot be used for fraudulent 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 SNAP program is run on a national level by the government.

This government and it’s parameters are under handled by the US 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 grocery store violates any of the following rules.

The store is accused oftrafficking SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

Your store submitted false information on the retail stores application to accept EBT benefits.

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

The employees of the store accepted 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 immense experience managing SNAP violations letters. We can handle your SNAP violation process in all phases of a SNAP violation action.

Sending the violation letter is the initial step which is taken by the USDA USDA to take away your EBT license. The letter can come with no warning and can happen at any time. The violation letter will contain allegations, but most of them will lay out violations, have evidence attached proving the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. After 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 your store has violated the rules. If that happens, they’ll will definitely send another letter which outlines the agencies legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the accusations previously mentioned. Like before, you have 10 days to appeal the decision. If you don’t, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our law firm, we’ll file the legal papers and notify the government appeal the decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and we will draft generate an appellate brief containing all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to change the outcome of the violations.

If the USDA refuses to overturn the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This next phase 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 food store retailer, there are many laws have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most cases, many grocery store owners don’t run into problems. However, USDA’s SNAP program can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limits on how the funds can be used. For example, SNAP recipients cant buy electronic goods. 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 major violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores didn’t know the violations were even occurring. Often, unethical employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation lawyer to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is sent to your retail store, you have only 10 days to respond to the allegations. Your failure to respond to the violations will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will generate a verdict even if you choose not to respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you cannot defend your store. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers will challenge the decision of the USDA and fight any decision. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully chooses to impose huge 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 and in effect at the time the violations were filed.

The retailer must has to be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in existence before the allegations, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA typically also looks in order to see if the 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 store that receives a letter consult 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.