Harrisburg Snap Violation Lawyers
7 CFR 278.6(b)(1)
We owe loyalty to only you.
When you’re looking online, you have multiple options. There are so many firms advertising SNAP defense. Thankfully, your search is over. Spodek Law Group P.C. offers premier white-glove service and we’re unafraid of fighting. Unlike firms that are more focused on their relationship with the agency than with you, we owe loyalty to only YOU. Your store, your family, your license.
One reason our firm has such a high success rate is that we’re selective about who we work with. If we’re choosing to work with you, it’s because we think we can make a positive impact. That’s vastly different from firms that take on any client willing to pay. When you reach out, you start with a risk-free consultation - and you can ask us anything you want, regardless of how long it takes.
If there’s a way to keep your store in the program, we’ll find it. That’s the whole job.
If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then you might have received a notice from the USDA. The notice is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is claiming you are in violation of the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, and it will have transactions that occurred at your retail store which the government claims is in violation of one or more categories of violations.
After you get a SNAP violation letter, you must speak to our our law firm. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you don’t respond, the USDA will terminate/suspend your grocery store’s ability to take EBT.
About The Program
This program provides families with a certain amount of money each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed through an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on the EBT card cannot legally be used for general use, and they cannot be used for cash back transactions. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued in the state where the consumer lives. This program is run on a national level by the government.
The government and it’s parameters 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 legal violations occur when a retail store is in violation of the following rules.
The retail store is accused oftrafficking SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting the benefits, or theft of the benefits. The grocery store took SNAP benefits in exchange for nonfood items like alcohol, tobacco, or other goods. Your store submitted incorrect info on your store’s application to accept EBT benefits. Your store took money for more EBT food stamps than food sales over the same period. The employees of the store accepted SNAP benefits from an unauthorized person who isn’t allowed to use the benefits.How to defend your store against a SNAP violation
Spodek Law Group has experience handling SNAP appeals letters. Our team of attorneys can handle your SNAP violation process in all 3 phases of a SNAP violation action.
Sending the letter is the first step taken by the USDA to take away your EBT license. This letter may come with no warning can come at any time. The SNAP violation letter has a variety of allegations, but most of them will lay out serious allegations, with an attachment of details. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. After you hire our law firm, we 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 might still feel that a violation has occurred. If this happens, the USDA will definitely send a second letter which outlines the governments 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, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our law firm, we’ll file the legal papers to notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and our team will generate an appellate brief which contains all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to overturn the decision.
In the event the USDA refuses to overturn the binding decision, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. The Judicial Appeal 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 food store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most cases, many retail store owners don’t run into problems. 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 buy electronic goods. If, and when, you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe fines. If it’s believed you did a major SNAP violation, then you may end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores didn’t know SNAP 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 attorney to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.
When a charge letter is sent to your store, you have only 10 days to respond to the violations. Failure to respond will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will deliver a verdict even though 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 can challenge the decision of the USDA and appeal any decision. The penalties imposed can expensive - to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully chooses to impose large fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. The policy must be in writing at the store and in effect at the time the allegations were filed.
The retailer must be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in existence before the allegations, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA will also look in order to see if the retail store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.
We highly recommend any 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.
When the biggest cases break, we get the call. That same team answers your ten days.
When the networks need a federal file explained in plain English, they call us.
This bench answers its own phone. Put it on your case.
Tell us what happened. Eight fields, two minutes - and a lawyer reads it today.
Read us the first line of the letter. We’ll tell you what day you’re on.
Bring the envelope, the attachment, and your invoices if you have them. If you don’t have them, bring the letter. The consultation is risk-free, it stays between us, and it happens today - ask us anything, regardless of how long it takes.