Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Duluth Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then may have been the recipient of a a notice from the USDA. The letter is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is stating you are in violation of the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, which will have transactions that happened at your store which the USDA claims violates one or more groups of violations.

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

About The Program

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

The SNAP program 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 counts as a SNAP violation

SNAP legal violations occur when a store violates any of the rules below.

The grocery store is accused ofthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

Your store submitted incorrect info on the retail stores application to accept EBT benefits.

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

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

How to defend your store against a SNAP violation

Spodek Law Group has immense experience handling SNAP violation letters. We can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all phases of a SNAP Violation action.

The charging letter is the initial step which is going to be taken by USDA to remove your EBT license. The letter can come with no warning can come at any time. The charging letter will contain allegations, but most letters will mention serious allegations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. Once you hire Spodek Law Group, our lawyers take into their hands 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 notice of violation, the USDA may still feel that a violation has occurred. If this happens, the USDA will definitely send a second letter which specifically states the governments legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the store based on the alleged violations. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you don’t, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our law firm, our team the appeal to notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and our team will generate an appellate brief containing all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is needed to overturn the decision.

If the USDA refuses to change the binding decision, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. The Judicial Appeal is like a normal federal court case, where you’ll have to do standard processes like discovery, file motions, and have a trial. Our lawyers 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 retail 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 should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If it’s believed you did a serious SNAP violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, store owners didn’t know SNAP violations were even happening. In many situations, unethical employees are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to discuss your case with a SNAP violation attorney in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is delivered to your store, you only have 10 days to respond to the allegations. Failure to respond to the violations will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will make a verdict even though you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our lawyers can fight the findings of the USDA and appeal any decision. The fines 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 must be in writing at the store and the policy must be at the time the allegations were filed.

The grocery store must be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in place before the charge, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA will also look to check if the retail store owners benefited from the violations, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any store owner that receives a violation 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.