Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Gary Snap Violation Lawyers

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

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you must contact our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you don’t respond, the USDA will suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT.

About The SNAP Program

The SNAP program provides families with money each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed with an EBT card. The benefits on the EBT card cannot be used for general usage, and they can’t be used for cash back services. The cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued in the state where the consumer lives. The SNAP program is operated on a national level by the federal government.

The SNAP government and it’s parameters are under handled by the United States 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 grocery store violates any of the rules below.

The grocery store took part inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting the benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

Your store submitted incorrect information on the grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

Your store took money for more EBT food stamps than actual food sales at the same time.

Your employees took SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t eligible to use the benefits.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Spodek Law Group has immense experience managing SNAP violations letters. We can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP action.

Sending the letter is the first step which is taken by the USDA USDA to take away your EBT license. This letter may come with, or without, prior warnings and can happen at any time. The SNAP violation letter will contain allegations, but most of them will outline violations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. After 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 violation letter, the USDA might still believe that a violation has occurred. If that happens, the USDA will 100% issue another letter that outlines the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the store based on the alleged violations. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you choose not to, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our firm, we’ll file the legal papers and notify the USDA appeal the decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and our team will draft the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to change the outcome of the violations.

If the USDA refuses to override the legal decision, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This next phase is like a normal 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 food store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, many retail 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 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 get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If you conduct a serious violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, store owners didn’t know the violations were even happening. In many situations, unethical employees who are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to speak with a SNAP violation attorney in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is delivered to your retail store, you have only ten days to respond to the violations. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will generate a verdict even though you choose not to respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our SNAP appeals lawyers can discredit 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. It must be in writing at the store and in effect at the time the allegations were filed.

The grocery store must 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 in order to check if the owners benefited from the violations, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store that gets a letter consult 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.