Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Martinez Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then it’s possible have received a official notice from the USDA. This notice is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is stating you are in violation of the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, and it will contain transactions that happened at your store which the government claims is in violation of one or more categories 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.

About The Program

This program provides families with a certain amount of money each month. The SNAP program benefits are given with an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on the card cannot legally be used for general use, and they cannot 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 where the recipient lives. The program is run on a national level by the government.

The SNAP program and it’s benefits are under handled by the United States 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 legal violations happen when a store is in violation of the rules below.

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

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

The store submitted false information on your grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

Your store redeemed more EBT food stamps than food sales during the same period.

The employees of the store accepted SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t eligible to use the benefits.

How we can help defend you against a SNAP violation notice

Spodek Law Group has immense experience handling SNAP violation letters. Our law firm can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all phases of a SNAP Violation action.

Sending the violation letter is the first step which is taken by the USDA USDA to take away your EBT license. This letter may come with no warning can come at any time. The charging letter has a variety of allegations, but most of them will detail violations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. Once you hire our law firm, 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.

After reviewing the store’s answer to the notice of violation, the USDA might still believe that a violation has occurred. If this happens, the USDA will 100% issue a second letter that outlines the governments legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the allegations set forth. Like before, you have 10 days to appeal this verdict. If you don’t, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our firm, our team the appeal to notify them we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and we will draft draft an appellate brief containing all of the case law, evidence, etc. which is needed to overturn the decision.

In the event the USDA refuses to overturn the legal decision, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District 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 lawyers can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a grocery store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, many retail store owners have no problems 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 and business crushing penalties. If you conduct a serious violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores didn’t know SNAP violations were even happening. Often, dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to discuss your case with a SNAP violation attorney in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is presented to your store, you have only 10 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 generate a verdict even if you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers can challenge the decision of the USDA and fight any decision. The penalties imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose chooses to impose large 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 at the time the allegations were filed.

The grocery store must 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 in order to check if the retail store owners benefited from the violations, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any owner that gets a allegation 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.