Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Hanford Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then it’s possible have gotten a letter from the USDA. This notice is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you are in violation of the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, and it will contain records of transactions that occurred at your retail store which the USDA is saying violates one or more genres of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you must contact our legal team. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you don’t respond, the USDA will suspend your stores privilege to take EBT.

About The Program

This program provides families with get food each month. These benefits are given through an EBT card. The benefits on the card cannot legally be used for general use, and they cannot be used for fraudulent cash back services. 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 SNAP program is run on a national level by the government.

This program and the benefits that come with it are governed 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 violations happen if and when a retail store violates any of the following rules.

The grocery store is accused oftrafficking SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

Your store submitted false info on the store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

The store took money for more coupons than actual food sales over the same period.

Your employees accepted 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 process in all 3 phases of a SNAP action.

Sending the violation letter is the initial step taken by the USDA to remove your EBT license. This letter may come with, or without, prior warnings can come at any time. The charging letter will contain allegations, but most letters will lay out violations, with an attachment of details. You have only 10 days to respond. Once you hire Spodek Law Group, 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.

After reviewing the store’s answer to the violation letter, the USDA might still believe that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, the USDA will issue another letter that outlines the agencies legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the alleged violations. 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 necessary paperwork and notify the USDA appeal the decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and we will draft generate the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the case law, evidence, etc. which is critical to fix the outcome.

In the event the USDA refuses to override the legal decision, 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 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 which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, many retail 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 buy electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in fines, and penalties. If it’s believed you did a major violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores don’t even know the violations are even occurring. Often, dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to consult with a SNAP violation lawyer in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is presented to your retail store, you only have 10 days to respond to the allegations. Your failure to respond to the violations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will make a verdict even though you don’t respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you cannot defend your store. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers will discredit the findings of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The financial penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully chooses to impose 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 in effect when the allegations were filed.

The grocery store also has to be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in existence before the allegations, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA typically also looks to see if the grocery store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any grocery store owner that gets a violation letter speak to 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.