Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Keller Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept 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 letter, which is alleging you violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, and it will have transactions which happened at your grocery store which the USDA is saying violates one or more genres of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you should definitely contact our law firm. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you choose to ignore, the government will terminate/suspend your grocery store’s ability to accept EBT payments.

About The Program

The SNAP program helps families with funds to buy food each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed via an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on the EBT card cannot legally be used for general use, and they cannot be used for cash back services. The cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued in the state where the consumer lives. The program is operated on a nationwide level by the government.

The government and it’s parameters 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 happen if and when a store is in violation of the following rules.

The grocery store is accused oftrafficking SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

Your store submitted false info on your store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

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

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

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

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

Sending the violation letter is the initial step which is going to be taken by USDA to remove your EBT license. The letter can come with no warning and can happen at any time. The charging letter contain details about alleged violations, but most letters will lay out serious allegations, 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, our lawyers handle 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 feel that a violation has occurred. If this happens, they’ll will definitely send another letter which specifically states their legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the allegations set forth. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you don’t, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our lawyers, our team the necessary paperwork and notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and we will draft draft the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to change the outcome of the violations.

If the USDA refuses to override the decision, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers 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 you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, many retail store owners have no issues adhering to them. 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 should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe fines. If you conduct a major violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores didn’t even know the violations are even occurring. Often, unethical employees who are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to discuss your case with a SNAP violation lawyer to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is presented to your grocery store, you only have ten days to respond to the claims. Your failure to respond to the allegations will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will make a verdict even though you choose not to respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you cannot defend your store. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our lawyers can discredit the decision of the USDA and appeal any decision. The penalties imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose imposes huge fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. It has to be in writing and in effect when the allegations were filed.

The retailer also be able to prove the compliance policy was in place before the charge, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA will also look to check if the retail store owners benefited from the violations, 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 receives 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.