Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Jefferson City Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then it’s possible have received a letter from the USDA. This letter is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you violated the SNAP program. The USDA will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, and it will have records of transactions which happened at your grocery store which the government is saying violates one or more genres of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you must contact our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you don’t respond, the USDA will terminate/suspend your stores privilege to take EBT.

About The SNAP Program

The SNAP program helps families with money each month. These benefits are given via an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on this card cannot be used for general use, and they can’t be used for fraudulent cash back transactions. The cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued in the state where the consumer lives. The program is operated on a nationwide level by the federal government.

This federal 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 happen when a store violates any of the following rules.

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

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

Your store submitted false information on your grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

Your store took money for more EBT food stamps than actual food sales over the same period.

Your employees accepted SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t eligible 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 team of attorneys can handle your SNAP violation process in all 3 phases of a SNAP violation action.

Sending the letter is the initial step which is going to be taken by USDA to take away your right to take EBT benefits. This letter may come with, or without, prior warnings can come at any time. The SNAP violation letter will contain allegations, but most of them will mention serious allegations, have evidence attached proving the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. After 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.

Once the USDA reviews your answer to the notice of violation, the USDA may still decide that a violation has occurred. If that happens, the USDA will issue another letter that specifically states the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the store based on the accusations previously mentioned. Like before, you have ten days to appeal this verdict. If you choose not to, then you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, we file the appeal to notify the USDA appeal the decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and we will draft draft an appellate brief containing all of the case law, evidence, etc. which is critical to overturn the decision.

If the USDA refuses to override the decision, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District 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 grocery 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 have no problems adhering to them. However, the SNAP program can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, people getting SNAP benefits cant purchase electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If it’s believed you did a major SNAP violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores didn’t even know the violations were even happening. Often, dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation attorney in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is presented to your retail store, you have only ten days to respond to the claims. Your failure to respond to the allegations will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will deliver a verdict even though 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 the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers will fight the decision of the USDA and fight any penalties. The financial penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully 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 when the violations were filed.

The grocery store also be able to prove the compliance policy was in place before the charge, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA typically also looks to check if the owners benefited from the violations, or were aware of the violation. If the managers were 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.