Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Gastonia Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then may have gotten a official warning from the USDA. The letter is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is stating you are in violation of the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, and it will have records of transactions which occurred at your retail store which the government claims violates one or more genres of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation letter, you should speak to our 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 Program

This program helps families with money each month. These benefits are distributed to consumers via an EBT card. The funds on the EBT card cannot legally be used for general use, and they can’t be used for cash back services. The EBT cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued by each state individually which the SNAP participant lives. The program is run on a national level by the government.

The SNAP government and it’s benefits 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’s a SNAP Violation

Snap violations occur when a grocery store violates any of the rules below.

The retail store was involved inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

The store submitted false information on your store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

Your grocery store redeemed more coupons than actual food sales 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 violations letters. Our law firm can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all phases of a SNAP Violation action.

Sending the violation letter is the first step taken by the USDA to remove your EBT license. This comes with no warning can come at any time. The charging letter has a variety of allegations, but most of them will outline 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 SNAP violation letter, the USDA may still believe that a violation has occurred. If that happens, they’ll will issue another letter that specifically states their decision to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the alleged violations. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you choose not to, then you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our law firm, our team the legal papers to notify them we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and our team will draft the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is critical to change the outcome of the violations.

In the event the USDA refuses to change the binding decision, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal District 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’s a lot of rules and regulations which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, 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 limitations. For example, SNAP recipients cant get electronic goods. If, and when, you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe fines. If it’s believed you did a serious violation, then you may end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores didn’t even know the violations are even occurring. In many situations, unethical employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to discuss your case with a SNAP violation lawyer to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is presented to your retail store, you have only ten days to respond to the allegations. Your failure to respond to the allegations will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will deliver 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 challenge the decision of the USDA and fight any penalties. The penalties imposed can be huge – 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 and the policy must be when the violations were filed.

The grocery store must has to 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 typically also looks in order 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 managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any grocery store owner that gets 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.