Helena Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then it’s possible have received a letter of warning from the USDA. This letter is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is stating you have violated the SNAP program. The USDA will include proof 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.

After you get a SNAP violation letter, you must contact our legal team. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you choose to ignore, the government will suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT payments.

About The SNAP Program

This program helps families with funds to buy food each month. These benefits are distributed through an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on the card cannot be used for general use, and they cannot be used for fraudulent cash back services. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued in the state where the recipient lives. The program is run on a nationwide level by the government.

The SNAP federal and the benefits that come with it are governed by the US 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 store is in violation of the following rules.

The retail store was involved intrafficking SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

The store submitted incorrect info on the retail stores application to accept EBT benefits.

The grocery store took money for more coupons than sale of actual food at the same time.

The employees of the store have taken SNAP benefits from someone who shouldn’t be allowed to use the benefits.

How to defend your store against a SNAP violation

Our law firm has immense experience managing SNAP violation letters. We can handle your SNAP violation process in all phases of a SNAP action.

The charging letter is the first step which is going to be taken by USDA to remove your EBT license. This letter may come with, or without, prior warnings and can happen at any time. The violation letter will contain allegations, but most letters will lay out violations, with an attachment of details. 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.

After reviewing the store’s answer to the notice of violation, the USDA might still decide that a violation has occurred. If that happens, the USDA will 100% issue another letter which specifically states the governments legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the accusations previously mentioned. 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 necessary paperwork to notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and we will draft generate an appellate brief containing all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to change the outcome of the violations.

If the USDA refuses to change the legal decision, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This next phase is like a normal federal court case, where you’ll be able to do discovery, file motions, and have a trial. Our lawyers 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 grocery 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, SNAP recipients cant get 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 severe fines. If it’s believed you did a serious SNAP violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores didn’t even know the violations were even happening. Often, dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to consult with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is delivered to your store, you have only 10 days to respond to the allegations. Your failure to respond to the allegations will permanently crush your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will deliver a verdict even if you don’t respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you cannot defend your store. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our SNAP appeals lawyers can challenge the findings of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully imposes 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 the policy must be at the time the violations were filed.

The retailer also has to be able to prove the compliance 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 owners were aware of the fraud. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any store owner that receives a allegation 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.