Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Garden Grove Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then it’s possible have gotten a letter of warning from the USDA. This letter is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is stating you are in violation of the SNAP program. The USDA will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, and it will have transactions which happened at your grocery store which the government is saying violates one or more categories of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you must contact 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 ability to accept EBT payments.

About The Program

The SNAP program provides families with a certain amount of money each month. The SNAP program benefits are given via an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on this card cannot be used for general usage, and they can’t be used for fraudulent 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 consumer lives. The program is run on a national level by the government.

This federal 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’s a SNAP Violation

Snap violations happen when a retail store is in violation of the following rules.

The retail store is accused ofthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting benefits, or stealing the benefits.

Your retail store accepted SNAP benefits in exchange for nonfood items like alcohol, tobacco, or other goods.

Your store submitted incorrect information on your retail stores application to accept EBT benefits.

The grocery store redeemed more EBT food stamps than actual food sales at the same time.

The employees of the store accepted SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t eligible to use the benefits.

How we can help defend you against a SNAP violation notice

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

Sending the violation letter is the initial step which is going to be taken by USDA to take away your EBT license. This letter may come with no warning can come at any time. The SNAP violation letter will have allegations in it, but most letters will lay out serious allegations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. Once you hire Spodek Law Group, 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 your store has violated the rules. If that happens, the USDA will 100% issue a second letter which outlines the agencies legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the accusations previously mentioned. Like before, you have ten days to appeal the decision. If you don’t, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, our team the appeal and notify them 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 critical to fix the outcome.

If the USDA refuses to change the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will 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. Our law firm can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a grocery store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, many grocery store owners have no problems adhering to them. 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, SNAP recipients cant get electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe fines. If it’s believed you did a major violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, store owners didn’t even know SNAP violations are even occurring. Often, it’s dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to consult with a SNAP violation lawyer in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is sent to your retail store, you only have ten days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Failure to respond will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will make 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 a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will fight the findings of the USDA and fight any penalties. The financial penalties imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully imposes huge fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. The policy must be in writing at the store and in effect at the time the allegations were filed.

The store owner must be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in existence before the allegations, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA will also look in order to check if the owners benefited from the violations, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store owner that gets a violation 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.