Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Lowell Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then may have been the recipient of a a official warning from the USDA. The notice is probably a SNAP violation letter, which is stating you are in violation of the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, which will contain transactions that happened at your store that the USDA is saying is in violation of one or more groups of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you must speak to our our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the government will terminate/suspend your stores ability to accept EBT.

About The Program

This program helps families with a certain amount of money each month. These benefits are distributed via an EBT card. The funds on the EBT card are not for general usage, and they can’t be used for cash back transactions. The EBT cards took over for 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.

This federal and it’s parameters 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 does it mean to have a SNAP violation

Snap violations happen if and when a grocery store violates any of the following rules.

The retail store took part inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

The store submitted false information on the store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

Your grocery store redeemed more coupons than food sales during the same period.

Your employees accepted SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t allowed to use them.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Spodek Law Group has experience handling SNAP violations letters. We can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP action.

Sending the violation letter is the first step which is going to be taken by USDA to take away your EBT license. This letter may come with no warning and can happen at any time. The violation letter has a variety of allegations, but most letters will detail violations, have evidence attached proving the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. 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 might still feel that a violation has occurred. If that happens, the USDA will 100% issue a second letter that specifically states the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the allegations set forth. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you don’t, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, we’ll file the necessary paperwork to notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and our team will draft an appellate brief containing all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is necessary to overturn the decision.

If the USDA refuses to change the legal decision, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This process is like a normal court case, where you’ll be able to do 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 grocery 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, SNAP recipients cant get electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe fines. If it’s believed you did a serious violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, store owners didn’t know SNAP violations were even happening. In many situations, dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to discuss your case with a SNAP violation lawyer to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is delivered to your store, you only have 10 days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will deliver a verdict even though you don’t respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you cannot defend your store. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers will 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 purposefully imposes large fines to curb violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. The policy has to be in writing and in effect at the time the violations were filed.

The retailer must be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in place before the charge, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA typically also looks to see if the grocery store owners benefited from the violations, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store owner that gets a violation letter consult 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.