Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Durham Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then it’s possible have gotten a official warning from the USDA. The letter is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is claiming you violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, which will have transactions that happened at your retail store which the government claims violates one or more groups of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you should speak to our our law firm. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you don’t respond, the government will suspend your stores ability to accept EBT.

About The Program

This program provides families with a certain amount of money each month. These benefits are distributed to consumers via an EBT card. The benefits on the card cannot legally be used for general use, and they can’t be used for cash back transactions. The cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued in the state where the recipient lives. This program is operated on a nationwide 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’s a SNAP Violation

Snap violations occur when a grocery store is in violation of the rules below.

The retail store is accused oftrafficking SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting the benefits, or stealing the benefits.

Your retail store accepted 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.

Your store redeemed more EBT food stamps than sale of actual food during the same period.

The employees of the store have taken 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 experience managing SNAP appeals letters. We can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP violation action.

Sending the violation letter is the first step taken by the USDA to remove your EBT license. This letter may come with, or without, prior warnings can come at any time. The SNAP violation letter contain details about alleged violations, but most of them will outline serious allegations, with an attachment of details. You have only 10 days to respond. Once 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.

Once the USDA reviews your answer to the SNAP violation letter, the USDA may still feel that a violation has occurred. If that happens, they’ll will issue another letter that specifically states the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the accusations previously mentioned. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you choose not to, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our law firm, our team the necessary paperwork to notify the USDA appeal the decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and we will draft generate an appellate brief which contains all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is critical to change the outcome of the violations.

In the event the USDA refuses to overturn the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, we’ll 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. We 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 retail store owners don’t run into problems. However, SNAP can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, people getting SNAP benefits cant get electronic goods. If, and when, you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If it’s believed you did a major SNAP violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores didn’t even know the violations are even happening. Often, dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to discuss your case with a SNAP violation appeals 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 ten 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 if you choose not to respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will 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 on purpose does large fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. The policy has to be in writing at the store and the policy must be at the time 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 in order to see if the grocery store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or were aware of the violation. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store owner that gets a allegation letter consult 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.