Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Carson Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then may have received a official notice from the USDA. The notice is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is alleging you have violated the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, and it will have transactions which happened at your retail store that the USDA claims violates one or more genres of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation letter, you must contact our law firm. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the government will suspend your stores ability to accept EBT.

About The SNAP Program

The SNAP program provides families with a certain amount of money each month. The SNAP program benefits are given with an EBT card. The benefits on the card are not for general use, and they can’t be used for fraudulent cash back transactions. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued in the state which the SNAP participant lives. This program is operated on a nationwide level by the federal government.

The federal and the benefits that come with it 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 if and when a grocery store is in violation of the rules below.

The retail store took part intrafficking SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

The store submitted incorrect info on the store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

Your store took money for more coupons than sale of actual food at the same time.

Your employees have taken SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t eligible to use the benefits.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Our law firm has immense experience handling SNAP appeals letters. We can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP violation action.

Sending the violation letter is the first step which is going to be taken by USDA to take away your EBT license. The letter can come with no warning and can appear at any time. The charging letter will contain allegations, but most letters will lay out serious allegations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. After 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 might still feel 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 appeal this verdict. If you don’t, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our firm, our team the legal papers to notify them appeal the decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and we will draft generate an appellate brief containing all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is critical to change the outcome of the violations.

In the event the USDA refuses to change the decision, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This next phase is like a normal court 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 food store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations you have to adhere to for 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 buy 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 major violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores didn’t know SNAP violations were even happening. Often, dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation lawyer in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is presented to your grocery store, you have only 10 days to respond to the violations. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will generate 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 a fighting change. Our lawyers can discredit the findings of the USDA and appeal any decision. The fines imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose does large fines to curb violations. The USDA will typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. It must be in writing and in effect when the violations were filed.

The grocery store must be able to prove the compliance 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 grocery store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any 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.