Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

McKinney Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then it’s possible have been the recipient of a a letter from the USDA. The notice is probably a SNAP violation letter, which is stating you violated the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, and it will contain transactions which happened at your store that the USDA is saying is in violation of one or more genres of violations.

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

About The Program

The SNAP program helps families with funds to buy food each month. These benefits are distributed to consumers through an EBT card. The benefits on the EBT card are not for general usage, and they cannot be used for cash back services. The 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.

This government and it’s parameters are governed by the United States 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 violates any of the following rules.

The retail store was involved inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting benefits, or theft of the benefits.

Your grocery store accepted SNAP funds 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.

The employees of the store took SNAP benefits from someone who shouldn’t be allowed to use the benefits.

How we can help defend you against a SNAP violation notice

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

Sending the violation letter is the first step taken by the USDA to take away your EBT license. The letter can come with no warning and can appear at any time. The violation letter has a variety of allegations, but most of them will lay out serious allegations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. After 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 SNAP violation letter, the USDA might still believe that your store has violated the rules. If this happens, the USDA will issue another letter which specifically states the governments decision to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the accusations previously mentioned. Like before, you have ten days to protest the verdict. 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 collect necessary evidence, and we will draft draft the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is necessary to fix the outcome.

If the USDA refuses to overturn the legal decision, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This process is like a normal case, where you’ll be able to do discovery, file motions, and have a trial. Our law firm can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a food store retailer, there are many laws have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most cases, many grocery 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, people getting SNAP benefits cant purchase electronic goods. If, and when, you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If you conduct a serious SNAP violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores don’t know the violations were even happening. In many situations, unethical employees who are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation lawyer to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is sent to your store, you have only 10 days to respond to the claims. Your failure to respond will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will make a verdict even though you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you cannot defend your store. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers will fight the decision of the USDA and fight any decision. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose does large fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. It has to be in writing at the store and the policy must be when the allegations were filed.

The store owner also has to be able to prove the compliance policy was in existence before the allegations, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA will also look to see if the owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any grocery store owner that gets a letter consult 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.