Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Folsom Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then it’s possible have received a notice from the USDA. This notice is probably a SNAP violation letter, which is alleging you are in violation of the SNAP program. The USDA will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, which will have transactions which occurred at your retail store which the government is saying is in violation of one or more groups of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you must speak to our our legal team. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will suspend your stores privilege to take EBT.

About The Program

The SNAP program provides families with funds to buy food each month. These benefits are distributed via 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 the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued in the state where the consumer lives. The program is operated on a national level by the federal government.

This federal and it’s benefits are governed by the United States Code and the Code of Federal Regulations. The USDA FNS agency enforces the regulations and runs the program.

What’s a SNAP Violation

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

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

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

The store submitted false information on the grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

Your store redeemed more coupons than sale of actual food over 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

Our law firm has experience handling SNAP appeals letters. We can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP Violation action.

The charging letter is the first step taken by the 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 has a variety of allegations, but most of them will detail violations, with an attachment of details. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. After you hire Spodek Law Group, our lawyers 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 violation letter, the USDA may still decide that a violation has occurred. If that happens, the USDA will definitely send another letter which specifically states the agencies legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the store based on the allegations set forth. Like before, you have 10 days to appeal this decision. If you choose not to, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our firm, our team the legal papers and notify them appeal the decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and we will draft draft an appellate brief which contains all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is necessary to change the outcome of the violations.

If the USDA refuses to change the decision, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This process is like a normal 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 which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, many retail store owners don’t run into problems. 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 purchase electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If you conduct a serious SNAP violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores didn’t even know the violations are even occurring. Often, unethical employees who are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to discuss your case with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is presented to your grocery store, you have only 10 days to respond to the allegations. Failure to respond to the allegations 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 won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers can discredit the decision of the USDA and fight any decision. The financial penalties imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully 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. It must be in writing at the store and in effect at the time the allegations were filed.

The retailer must has to be able to prove the compliance policy was in place before the charge, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA will also look to check if the owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any grocery store 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.