Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Juneau Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then may have received a letter from the USDA. The notice is probably a SNAP violation letter, which is alleging you have violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, which will have transactions that occurred at your store which the USDA claims is in violation of one or more categories of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you should contact our legal team. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you don’t respond, the USDA will terminate/suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT payments.

About The SNAP Program

This program helps families with get food each month. These benefits are distributed to consumers with an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on the EBT card are not for general usage, and they cannot be used for cash back transactions. The cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued in the state which the SNAP participant lives. The program is run on a national level by the federal government.

The SNAP government and it’s benefits are under handled 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 violations occur when a retail store violates any of the rules below.

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

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

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

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

Your employees took SNAP benefits from an unauthorized person who isn’t allowed to use the benefits.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Spodek Law Group has experience managing 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 initial step taken by the USDA to remove your EBT license. This comes with, or without, prior warnings can come at any time. The violation letter contain details about alleged violations, but most letters will mention violations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. Once 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 violation letter, the USDA may still believe that your store has violated the rules. If this happens, they’ll will 100% issue another letter which outlines the governments decision to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the alleged violations. 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 firm, we file the legal papers to notify them we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and we will draft generate an appellate brief which contains all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is critical to change the outcome of the violations.

In the event the USDA refuses to override 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 case, where you’ll have to do standard processes like discovery, file motions, and have a trial. We 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 normal situations, many retail 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 limitations. For example, SNAP recipients cant get electronic goods. 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 serious violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores didn’t know the violations were even occurring. Often, unethical employees are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation lawyer in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is sent to your retail store, you have only ten days to respond to the allegations. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will generate 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 a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers can fight the decision of the USDA and fight any penalties. The penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully chooses to impose large fines to curb violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. The policy must be in writing at the store and in effect at the time the violations were filed.

The store owner also be able to prove the compliance policy was in existence before the allegations, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA typically also looks to see if the owners benefited from the violations, or were aware of the violation. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any grocery store owner that receives 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.