Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Livermore Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then may have received a letter from the USDA. This notification is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is alleging you are in violation of the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, and it will contain transactions that happened at your retail store that the government is saying violates one or more groups of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation letter, you should definitely contact our law firm. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you don’t respond, the USDA will terminate/suspend your stores ability to accept EBT.

About The Program

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

The government and the benefits that come with it 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 legal violations occur when a retail store is in violation of the rules below.

The retail store is accused ofthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

The store submitted incorrect info on your store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

The grocery store took money for more coupons than food sales at the same time.

The employees of the store have taken SNAP benefits from someone who shouldn’t be 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 phases of a SNAP action.

Sending the letter is the first step which is going to be taken by USDA to remove your right to take EBT benefits. The letter can come with no warning and can happen at any time. The SNAP violation letter contain details about alleged violations, but most of them will mention violations, have evidence attached proving the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. Once you hire Spodek Law Group, 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.

After reviewing the store’s answer to the SNAP violation letter, the USDA might still decide that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, the USDA will definitely send another letter which specifically states the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the store based on the alleged violations. 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, our team the necessary paperwork to notify them appeal the decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and we will draft generate an appellate brief which contains all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is necessary to overturn the decision.

In the event the USDA refuses to override the legal decision, in the Administrative Review, we will 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 which you have to adhere to for 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 limits on how the funds can be used. For example, SNAP recipients cant purchase electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in fines, and penalties. If it’s believed you did a major violation, then you may end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, store owners don’t even know SNAP violations were even occurring. In many situations, dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to discuss your case with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is sent to your store, you only have 10 days to respond to the violations. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently crush your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will deliver a verdict even if you choose not to respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you cannot defend your store. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers can discredit the decision of the USDA and appeal any decision. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully chooses to impose huge 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 when the allegations were filed.

The grocery store must be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in existence before the allegations, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA will also look to check if the owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any grocery store owner that gets a allegation 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.