Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Jersey City Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then it’s possible have been the recipient of a a letter from the USDA. This letter is probably a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you have violated the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, and it will contain transactions which happened at your store which the USDA claims violates one or more groups of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation letter, you should speak to our 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 accept EBT.

About The Program

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

This government and it’s benefits are governed by the US Code and the Code of Federal Regulations. The USDA FNS agency enforces the regulations and runs the program.

What counts as a SNAP violation

SNAP legal violations occur if and when a store is in violation of the rules below.

The retail store is accused ofthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

Your store submitted false info on your retail stores application to accept EBT benefits.

Your grocery store redeemed more coupons than sale of actual food at the same time.

Your employees have taken 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 violations letters. Our law firm 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, or without, prior warnings and can happen at any time. The SNAP violation letter contain details about alleged violations, but most of them will mention violations, with an attachment of details. You have only 10 days to respond. Once 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.

After reviewing the store’s answer to the SNAP violation letter, the USDA might still feel that your store has violated the rules. If this happens, the USDA will issue another letter which specifically states the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the accusations previously mentioned. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you don’t, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our firm, we file the legal papers to notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and our team will generate the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is critical to change the outcome of the violations.

If the USDA refuses to overturn the legal decision, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This process is like a normal case, where you’ll have to do standard processes like discovery, file motions, and have a trial. Our attorneys 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 limitations. For example, SNAP recipients cant get 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 violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores didn’t know SNAP violations were even happening. In many situations, it’s dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to speak with a SNAP violation lawyer to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is presented to your retail store, you only have ten days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Your failure to respond to the violations will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will make a verdict even if you don’t respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you cannot defend your store. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers can discredit 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 on purpose does huge fines to curb violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. It must be in writing and in effect when the allegations were filed.

The store owner also be able to prove the compliance policy was in place before the charge, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA typically also looks to check if the grocery 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 owner that gets a 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.