Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Delray Beach Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then you might have gotten a official notice from the USDA. The notice is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is stating you are in violation of the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, and it will have transactions that occurred at your retail store which the government 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.

About The Program

This program helps families with get food each month. These benefits are distributed with an EBT card. The funds on the EBT card aren’t for general use, and they can’t be used for cash back services. The cards took the place of 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 nationwide level by the government.

This 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 violations happen when a retail store is in violation of the following rules.

The store took part intrafficking SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

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

The grocery store took money for more coupons than actual food sales during the same period.

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

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Spodek Law Group has experience handling SNAP violations letters. Our law firm can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP action.

The charging letter is the first step which is going to be taken by USDA to remove your right to take EBT benefits. The letter can come with no warning can come at any time. The SNAP violation letter will contain allegations, but most of them will mention violations, have evidence attached proving the violations. 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 decide that a violation has occurred. If this happens, the USDA will definitely send a second letter which outlines the governments legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have ten days to appeal this verdict. If you don’t, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our lawyers, we’ll file the necessary paperwork to notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and we will draft draft an appellate brief which contains all of the case law, evidence, etc. which is critical to change the outcome of the violations.

If the USDA refuses to overturn the legal decision, in the Administrative Review, we 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 grocery store retailer, there are many laws have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most normal situations, 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 get electronic goods. If, and when, you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If you conduct a serious SNAP violation, then you may end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores didn’t even know the violations were even happening. In many situations, unethical employees who are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation lawyer to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is sent to your grocery store, you only have 10 days to respond to the claims. 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. Without legal experience, you cannot defend your store. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will fight the decision of the USDA and appeal any decision. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose chooses to impose huge fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. It must be in writing and in effect when the allegations were filed.

The store owner must 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 will also look in order to see if the owners benefited from the violations, or were aware of the violation. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any owner that gets a letter speak to 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.