Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Middletown Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then it’s possible have gotten a notice from the USDA. The notice is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you violated the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, and it will have records of transactions that occurred at your grocery store that the government claims violates one or more genres of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you must speak to our our law firm. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the government will terminate/suspend your grocery store’s ability to take EBT.

About The Program

This program helps families with funds to buy food each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed to consumers through an EBT card. The benefits on this card are not for general usage, and they can’t be used for fraudulent cash back transactions. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued by each state individually where the consumer lives. The program is operated on a nationwide level by the federal government.

This federal and the benefits that come with it 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’s a SNAP Violation

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

The store was involved intrafficking SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

Your store submitted incorrect info on the store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

Your store took money for more EBT food stamps than food sales over the same period.

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

How to defend your store against a SNAP violation

Spodek Law Group has experience handling SNAP appeals letters. Our team of attorneys can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP action.

Sending the letter is the first step which is taken by the USDA USDA to remove your EBT license. This letter may come with no warning can come at any time. The charging letter contain details about alleged violations, but most letters will detail serious allegations, with an attachment of details. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. After you hire our law firm, 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 SNAP violation letter, the USDA may still feel that your store has violated the rules. If this happens, the USDA will definitely send a second letter which specifically states the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the accusations previously mentioned. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you choose not to, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our lawyers, we’ll file the legal papers and notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and our team will generate the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the case law, evidence, etc. which is necessary to overturn the decision.

If the USDA refuses to overturn the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. The Judicial Appeal is like a normal case, where you’ll be able to do 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 you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, many retail 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, SNAP recipients cant buy electronic goods. If, and when, you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe fines. If it’s believed you did a serious SNAP violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, store owners didn’t even know SNAP violations are even occurring. Often, it’s dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to consult with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is presented to your retail store, you have only 10 days to respond to the allegations. Failure to respond to the violations will permanently crush 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 cannot defend your store. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers will discredit the decision of the USDA and fight any penalties. The financial penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully imposes huge fines to curb violations. The USDA will typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. The policy has to be in writing and in effect when the violations were filed.

The store owner must has to 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 to check if the grocery store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or were aware of the violation. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any owner that receives a 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.