Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Charleston Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then may have gotten a official warning from the USDA. This letter is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you have violated the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, which will contain records of transactions that occurred at your store that the USDA claims is in violation of one or more categories of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you must 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 ability to take EBT.

About The Program

This program provides families with a certain amount of money each month. These benefits are distributed with an EBT card. The benefits on this card aren’t for general usage, and they cannot 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 by each state individually where the recipient lives. This program is run on a national level by the federal government.

The government and it’s parameters 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’s a SNAP Violation

Snap violations occur if and when a grocery store violates any of the rules below.

The grocery store is accused ofthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

Your store submitted false information on the store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

The store redeemed more coupons than food sales during the same period.

The employees of the store have taken SNAP benefits from an unauthorized person who isn’t allowed to use the benefits.

How to defend your store against a SNAP violation

Spodek Law Group has experience managing SNAP appeals letters. We can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP action.

Sending the letter is the initial step which is going to be taken by USDA to take away your right to take EBT benefits. This comes with, or without, prior warnings can come at any time. The charging letter has a variety of allegations, but most letters will outline serious allegations, have evidence attached proving the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. Once 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 SNAP violation letter, the USDA may still decide that your store has violated the rules. If this happens, they’ll will issue another letter that specifically states the agencies legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the store based on the accusations previously mentioned. Like before, you have ten days to appeal this verdict. If you don’t, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, we file the appeal to notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and our team will generate the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is necessary to change the outcome of the violations.

In the event the USDA refuses to change the legal 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 federal 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 are many laws which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, many grocery store owners have no issues 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 buy electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in fines, and penalties. If it’s believed you did 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, it’s dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to discuss your case with a SNAP violation lawyer in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is delivered to your retail store, you have only ten days to respond to the violations. Your failure to respond will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will make a verdict even if you don’t respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you cannot defend your store. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers can discredit the findings of the USDA and fight any decision. The penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose imposes large fines to curb violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. It must be in writing and the policy must be at the time the allegations were filed.

The grocery store also has to be able to prove the compliance policy was in existence before the allegations, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA typically also looks in order to check if the grocery store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any owner that gets a allegation 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.