Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Clifton Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then you might have gotten a official notice from the USDA. The notification is most likely a SNAP violation notice, 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 that the USDA claims violates one or more categories of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation letter, you should contact our legal team. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you don’t respond, the government will terminate/suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT.

About The SNAP Program

This program provides families with a certain amount of money each month. These benefits are given with an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on the card cannot be used for general use, and they cannot be used for cash back services. The cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued by each state individually where the consumer lives. The SNAP program is operated on a nationwide level by the government.

The SNAP program 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 counts as a SNAP violation

SNAP legal violations occur if and when a grocery store violates any of the following rules.

The store took part inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

The store submitted incorrect information on the grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

The grocery store took money for more EBT food stamps than sale of actual food over the same period.

Your employees accepted SNAP benefits from an unauthorized person who isn’t allowed 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. Our law firm can handle your SNAP violation process in all phases of a SNAP Violation action.

The charging letter is the first step taken by the USDA to remove your right to take EBT benefits. The letter can come with no warning can come at any time. The violation letter will have allegations in it, but most of them will outline violations, with an attachment of details. You have only 10 days to respond. Once you hire our law firm, our lawyers 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 a violation has occurred. If this happens, the USDA will issue another letter that outlines their legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have 10 days to protest this decision. If you choose not to, then you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our firm, we’ll file the necessary paperwork and notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and our team will generate the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is necessary to overturn the decision.

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 Court. This process is like a normal federal court case, where you’ll be able to do discovery, file motions, and have a trial. We can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a grocery store retailer, there are many laws which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, many grocery store owners don’t run into problems. However, SNAP 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 purchase electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If you conduct a serious violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores didn’t know SNAP violations were even occurring. Often, dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to consult with a SNAP violation lawyer in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is sent to your retail store, you have only 10 days to respond to the violations. Failure to respond to the violations will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will generate a verdict even though 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 lawyers will challenge the findings of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose does huge fines to curb violations. The USDA will typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. It has to be in writing and the policy must be when the allegations were filed.

The retailer must has to be able to prove the compliance policy was in place before the charge, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA will also look in order to check if the grocery store owners benefited from the violations, 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 owner that gets a violation 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.