Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Miami Gardens Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then may have gotten a official warning from the USDA. This letter is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is stating you violated the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, which will contain transactions that happened at your retail store which the government claims violates one or more genres of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you should speak to our our law firm. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you don’t respond, the USDA will suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT payments.

About The SNAP Program

This program helps families with a certain amount of money each month. These benefits are distributed to consumers via an EBT card. The funds on the EBT card are not for general use, and they cannot be used for cash back services. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued by each state individually where the recipient lives. The SNAP program is operated on a nationwide level by the government.

This program 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 store violates any of the rules below.

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

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

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

The grocery store redeemed more coupons than food sales over 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 managing SNAP violation letters. Our team of attorneys can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all phases of a SNAP violation action.

Sending the letter is the initial step which is going to be taken by USDA to take away your right to take EBT benefits. The letter can come with, or without, prior warnings can come at any time. The SNAP violation letter will contain allegations, but most of them will detail serious allegations, have evidence attached proving the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. Once 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 may still decide that a violation has occurred. If this happens, they’ll will 100% issue a second letter which specifically states the governments legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have 10 days to protest this decision. If you choose not to, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our firm, we file the legal papers to notify the USDA appeal the decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and we will draft draft an appellate brief containing all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is needed to change the outcome of the violations.

In the event the USDA refuses to override the legal decision, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This next phase is like a normal court case, where you’ll be able to do discovery, file motions, and have a trial. We can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a food store retailer, there are many laws which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, many retail store owners have no issues adhering to them. However, the 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, and when, you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can include fines and penalties. If you conduct a major SNAP violation, then you may end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, store owners didn’t know the violations are even occurring. Often, dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to consult with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is sent to your retail store, you only have ten days to respond to the claims. Your failure to respond to the violations will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will deliver a verdict even though you choose not to 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 can discredit the decision of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The financial penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose does huge fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. It must be in writing at the store and the policy must be when the allegations were filed.

The store owner must be able to prove the compliance policy was in place before the charge, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA typically also looks in order to see 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 grocery store owner that receives 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.