Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Mesa Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then you might have been the recipient of a a letter from the USDA. The notification is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you have violated the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, and it will contain records of transactions which happened at your retail store which the USDA is saying violates one or more genres of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you should speak to our our legal team. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you don’t respond, the USDA will suspend your grocery store’s ability to take EBT.

About The SNAP Program

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

The program 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 does it mean to have a SNAP violation

SNAP legal violations occur when a retail store is in violation of the following rules.

The store is accused oftrafficking SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

The store submitted incorrect info on your retail stores application to accept EBT benefits.

The grocery store redeemed more coupons than sale of actual food at the same time.

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

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Spodek Law Group has immense experience handling SNAP violation letters. Our law firm can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP Violation action.

The charging 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 can come at any time. The charging letter will contain allegations, but most letters will outline serious allegations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. After 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.

Once the USDA reviews your answer to the violation letter, the USDA may still believe that a violation has occurred. If this happens, they’ll will issue another letter which outlines the governments decision to suspend or disqualify the grocery 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. After you hire our lawyers, we file the legal papers and notify them appeal the decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and we will draft generate the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the case law, evidence, etc. which is needed to fix the outcome.

If the USDA refuses to overturn the binding decision, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. The Judicial Appeal is like a normal federal 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 are many laws you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, many grocery 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, people getting SNAP benefits cant get electronic goods. If, and when, you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If you conduct a serious SNAP violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, store owners don’t even know the violations were even occurring. In many situations, unethical employees who are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to speak with a SNAP violation attorney in order to make 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 allegations. Failure to respond will permanently crush 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 won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our SNAP appeals lawyers can challenge the decision of the USDA and fight any penalties. The penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully chooses to impose large fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. The policy has to be in writing at the store and the policy must be when the violations were filed.

The retailer must 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 in order to check if the grocery store owners benefited from the violations, or were aware of the violation. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store owner that receives a violation 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.