Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Friendswood Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then it’s possible have gotten a letter from the USDA. This letter is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is alleging you are in violation of the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, which will contain transactions which occurred at your retail store that the USDA claims is in violation of one or more genres of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you should definitely contact our law firm. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will suspend your stores ability to accept EBT payments.

About The Program

This program helps families with a certain amount of money each month. These benefits are given through an EBT card. The funds on the card aren’t for general usage, and they cannot be used for cash back transactions. The cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued by each state individually which the SNAP participant lives. This program is run on a national level by the government.

The SNAP program and it’s parameters 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 when a retail store violates any of the rules below.

The retail store took part intrafficking SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or stealing 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 redeemed more EBT food stamps than actual food sales over the same period.

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

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

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

The charging letter is the first step taken by the USDA to take away your EBT license. This comes with, or without, prior warnings can come at any time. The SNAP violation letter contain details about alleged violations, but most of them will detail serious allegations, with an attachment of details. You have only 10 days to respond. Once you hire our law firm, 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.

Once the USDA reviews your answer to the notice of violation, the USDA may still feel that a violation has occurred. If that happens, the USDA will issue another letter which outlines their legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the allegations set forth. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you choose not to, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, our team the legal papers and notify the government appeal the decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and our team will draft the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is necessary to fix the outcome.

In the event the USDA refuses to override the legal 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 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 are many laws have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most cases, many grocery 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 purchase electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in fines, and 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, store owners don’t know the violations are even occurring. In many situations, it’s dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to discuss your case with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is presented to your store, you only have 10 days to respond to the allegations. Your failure to respond will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will generate a verdict even if you choose not to respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, 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 will fight the findings of the USDA and fight any decision. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully does huge fines to curb violations. The USDA will typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. It has to be in writing and the policy must be when 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 grocery store 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.

It’s highly recommended any store 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.