Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

DeKalb Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then you might have gotten a letter from the USDA. The notice 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 have records of transactions which occurred at your store which the USDA is saying violates one or more groups of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you must contact our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you don’t respond, the government will terminate/suspend your stores ability to accept EBT payments.

About The Program

This program helps families with money each month. These benefits are distributed via an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on this card cannot be used for general usage, and they cannot be used for cash back transactions. The cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued by each state individually which the SNAP participant lives. The program is run on a national level by the federal government.

The government and the benefits that come with it 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 does it mean to have a SNAP violation

Snap violations happen if and when a store violates any of the following rules.

The grocery store was involved inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting the benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

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

The grocery store redeemed more coupons than actual food sales at the same time.

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

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Spodek Law Group has immense experience managing SNAP violation letters. Our law firm can handle your SNAP violation process in all 3 phases of a SNAP action.

Sending the violation letter is the initial step taken by the USDA to remove your EBT license. The letter can come with no warning can come at any time. The violation letter has a variety of allegations, but most letters will mention violations, with an attachment of details. You have only 10 days to respond. After you hire our law firm, 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 SNAP violation letter, the USDA might still believe that a violation has occurred. If this happens, they’ll will definitely send another letter which specifically states the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the alleged violations. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you don’t, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our firm, we’ll file the legal papers to notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and we will draft draft an appellate brief which contains all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is critical to change the outcome of the violations.

If the USDA refuses to override the decision, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal 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. We can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a food store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most normal situations, 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, people getting SNAP benefits cant buy electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe fines. If it’s believed you did a serious violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, store owners don’t even know the violations are even happening. Often, unethical employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to discuss your case with a SNAP violation lawyer in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is delivered to your store, you only have ten days to respond to the claims. Your 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. Without legal experience, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will challenge the findings of the USDA and fight any decision. The fines imposed can be huge – 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 look to see if you have a store compliance policy. The policy must be in writing at the store and the policy must be when the violations were filed.

The retailer also be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in place before the charge, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA will also look to check if the retail store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or were aware of the violation. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any grocery store owner that gets a 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.