Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

East Providence Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then you might have received a official warning from the USDA. The letter is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is stating you violated the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, and it will have records of transactions which occurred at your retail store that the government is saying violates one or more categories of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation letter, 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 SNAP Program

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

This federal and the benefits that come with it are governed 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 legal violations occur if and when a grocery 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 theft of the benefits.

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

Your store submitted false information on the store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

Your grocery store took money for more EBT food stamps than sale of actual food over the same period.

The employees of the store have taken SNAP benefits from an unauthorized person who isn’t allowed to use the benefits.

How we can help defend you against a SNAP violation notice

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

Sending the letter is the initial step taken by the USDA to take away your EBT license. This comes with, or without, prior warnings and can happen at any time. The violation letter contain details about alleged violations, but most letters will outline serious allegations, with an attachment of details. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. Once 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.

After reviewing the store’s answer to the notice of violation, the USDA may still decide that a violation has occurred. If this happens, the USDA will definitely send another letter that outlines the governments decision to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the accusations previously mentioned. Like before, you have ten days to appeal the verdict. If you don’t, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, our team the legal papers 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 case law, legal evidence, etc. which is critical to change the outcome of the violations.

In the event the USDA refuses to override the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, we’ll 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 lawyers can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a food store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, many grocery store owners have no problems adhering to them. However, USDA’s SNAP program can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, people getting SNAP benefits cant buy electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you’ll 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, store owners don’t even know the violations were even occurring. In many situations, it’s dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to speak with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is delivered to your retail store, you only have ten days to respond to the allegations. Failure to respond will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will deliver 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 decision of the USDA and appeal any decision. The fines imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully does huge fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. The policy has to be in writing at the store and in effect at the time the allegations were filed.

The grocery store 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 grocery store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or were aware of the violation. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any grocery store owner that receives a letter speak to 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.