Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Freeport Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then you might have received a letter from the USDA. This notification is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is alleging you are in violation of the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, which will contain records of transactions that occurred at your store that the USDA is saying violates one or more genres of violations.

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

About The SNAP Program

The SNAP program helps families with funds to buy food each month. These benefits are distributed via an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on the EBT card are not for general usage, and they can’t be used for fraudulent cash back services. The cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued in the state where the recipient lives. This program is run on a national level by the government.

The SNAP program and it’s benefits are governed 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 legal violations happen if and when a retail store is in violation of the rules below.

The retail store is accused oftrafficking SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting benefits, or theft of the benefits.

The retail store took SNAP funds 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.

The store took money for more coupons than food sales at the same time.

Your employees took SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t allowed to use them.

How to defend your store against a SNAP violation

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

The charging letter is the first step which is going to be taken by USDA to remove your EBT license. The letter can come with, or without, prior warnings and can appear at any time. The charging letter has a variety of allegations, but most of them will detail violations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. Once you hire our law firm, 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 decide that a violation has occurred. If this happens, the USDA will issue a second letter which outlines the governments decision to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the allegations set forth. Like before, you have ten days to appeal the decision. If you choose not to, then you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our lawyers, we’ll file the appeal and notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and our team will generate an appellate brief which contains all of the case law, evidence, etc. which is critical to fix the outcome.

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. The Judicial Appeal is like a normal court case, where you’ll be able to do 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’s a lot of rules and regulations you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, many grocery store owners have no issues 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 purchase electronic goods. If, and when, you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in fines, and penalties. If you conduct a serious violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, store owners don’t even know SNAP violations are even happening. Often, unethical employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to discuss your case with a SNAP violation lawyer in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is presented to your retail store, you only have ten days to respond to the allegations. Your failure to respond to the violations will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will make a verdict even if you don’t respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers can fight the decision of the USDA and fight any decision. The penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose imposes 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 must be in writing at the store and in effect when the violations were filed.

The store owner must has to be able to prove the compliance policy was in place before the charge, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA typically also looks in order 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 store owner that receives a violation 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.