Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Collierville Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then it’s possible have been the recipient of a a notice from the USDA. This notification is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is stating you have violated the SNAP program. The USDA will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, which will contain records of transactions that occurred at your store that the government claims is in violation of one or more categories of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation letter, you should definitely 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 privilege to accept EBT payments.

About The Program

This program provides families with get food each month. These benefits are distributed through an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on this card cannot legally be used for general use, and they can’t be used for cash back transactions. The EBT cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued by each state individually where the recipient lives. The SNAP program is operated on a national level by the government.

This government and it’s benefits are governed 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 violations occur if and when a store is in violation of the following rules.

The store was involved intrafficking SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting the benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

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

The store took money for more coupons than food sales over the same period.

The employees of the store have taken SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t allowed to use them.

How to defend your store against a SNAP violation

Our law firm has immense experience managing SNAP violation letters. Our team of attorneys can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP Violation action.

Sending the violation letter is the initial step which is going to be taken by USDA to take away your EBT license. The letter can come with, or without, prior warnings and can appear at any time. The violation letter has a variety of allegations, but most of them will outline violations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. 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 may still decide that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, the USDA will 100% issue a second letter that specifically states their legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the store based on the allegations set forth. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you don’t, then you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our law firm, our team the appeal and notify the government appeal the decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and we will draft draft the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the case law, evidence, etc. which is critical to fix the outcome.

If the USDA refuses to override the binding decision, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This process 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 grocery store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, many grocery store owners have no issues adhering to them. 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 get electronic goods. 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 serious SNAP violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores don’t know SNAP violations are even happening. In many situations, dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to discuss your case with a SNAP violation attorney in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is delivered to your grocery store, you only have ten days to respond to the claims. Failure to respond to the violations will permanently crush your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will deliver a verdict even if you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you cannot defend your store. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our lawyers will challenge the decision 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 imposes 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 has to be in writing and in effect when the allegations were filed.

The retailer also 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 to see if the owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store owner that receives 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.