Helena Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then may have gotten a official warning from the USDA. The letter is probably a SNAP violation letter, which is alleging you violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, and it will contain records of transactions which happened at your store that the government claims violates one or more genres of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you should speak to our our legal team. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you don’t respond, the government will terminate/suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT.

About The SNAP Program

The SNAP program provides families with funds to buy food each month. These benefits are distributed to consumers through an EBT card. The benefits on this card are not for general use, and they cannot be used for fraudulent cash back transactions. 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 run on a national level by the government.

The SNAP 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’s a SNAP Violation

SNAP legal violations occur when a retail store is in violation of the following rules.

1. The store is accused oftrafficking SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting benefits, or theft of the benefits.
2. The grocery store took SNAP benefits in exchange for nonfood items like alcohol, tobacco, or other goods.
3. Your store submitted incorrect information on the retail stores application to accept EBT benefits.
4. Your store redeemed more coupons than sale of actual food during the same period.
5. Your employees took SNAP benefits from someone who shouldn’t be allowed to use the benefits.

How we can help defend you against a SNAP violation notice

Our law firm has experience handling SNAP violation letters. Our law firm can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP Violation action.

Sending the violation letter is the first step which is going to be taken by USDA to remove your right to take EBT benefits. This comes with no warning can come at any time. The charging letter has a variety of allegations, but most letters will detail serious allegations, have evidence attached proving the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. After you hire Spodek Law Group, 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 violation letter, the USDA may still feel that a violation has occurred. If this happens, they’ll will issue a second letter which outlines the agencies legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the allegations set forth. Like before, you have ten days to protest this verdict. If you choose not to, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our lawyers, we’ll file the necessary paperwork and notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and our team will generate the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to fix the outcome.

If the USDA refuses to change the decision, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This process is like a normal 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 grocery store retailer, there are many laws you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, 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 limits on how the funds can be used. For example, SNAP recipients cant buy electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can include fines and penalties. If you conduct a major SNAP violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, store owners didn’t even know the violations are even occurring. Often, unethical employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to discuss your case with a SNAP violation lawyer in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is sent to your store, you only have ten days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Failure to respond will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will make a verdict even though you choose not to respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you cannot defend your store. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will fight 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 on purpose does large fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. It has to be in writing and in effect at the time the allegations were filed.

The grocery store must be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in place before the charge, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA will also look to check if the owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or were aware of the violation. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any owner that gets a letter consult 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.