Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Hempstead Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then it’s possible have received a official notice from the USDA. This notification is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is alleging you have violated the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, which will contain records of transactions that occurred at your grocery store that the USDA claims is in violation of one or more categories of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you must speak to our our law firm. 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 SNAP Program

The SNAP program helps families with funds to buy food each month. The SNAP program benefits are given with an EBT card. The benefits on the EBT card aren’t for general usage, and they cannot be used for fraudulent cash back transactions. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued by each state individually where the recipient lives. This program is operated on a national level by the government.

The SNAP federal 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 does it mean to have a SNAP violation

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

The store took part intrafficking SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

The store submitted incorrect information on the store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

Your store redeemed more EBT food stamps than food sales at the same time.

Your employees have taken SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t eligible to use the benefits.

How to defend your store against a SNAP violation

Spodek Law Group has experience managing SNAP violations letters. Our team of attorneys can handle your SNAP violation process in all phases of a SNAP violation action.

Sending the letter is the initial step taken by the USDA to take away your EBT license. The letter can come with, or without, prior warnings can come at any time. The charging letter contain details about alleged violations, but most of them will outline violations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. Once you hire our law firm, our lawyers take into their hands 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 might still believe that a violation has occurred. If that happens, the USDA will 100% issue another letter which outlines their decision to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the alleged violations. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you don’t, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our law firm, we file the legal papers to notify them we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and we will draft generate an appellate brief containing all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to overturn the decision.

In the event the USDA refuses to override the decision, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This next phase 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 grocery store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, many grocery store owners don’t run into problems. However, SNAP 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 you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can include fines and penalties. If it’s believed you did a serious SNAP 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 were even occurring. In many situations, dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to speak with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is presented to your store, you have only ten days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Your failure to respond will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will generate a verdict even if you choose not to 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 a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will fight the decision of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The penalties imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose does huge fines to curb violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. It has to be in writing at the store and the policy must be at the time the allegations 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 check 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.

We highly recommend any store that gets a letter consult 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.