Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Mission Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then may have received a letter of warning from the USDA. This notice is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is alleging you violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, which will contain transactions which occurred at your grocery store which the USDA claims is in violation of one or more categories of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you must contact our legal team. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you don’t respond, the USDA will suspend your stores ability to accept EBT payments.

About The Program

This program helps families with get food each month. These benefits are distributed with an EBT card. The funds on the card aren’t for general usage, and they cannot be used for cash back services. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued by each state individually which the SNAP participant lives. The SNAP program is run on a nationwide level by the government.

The government 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 grocery store is in violation of the rules below.

The store took part inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

The store submitted incorrect information on the retail stores application to accept EBT benefits.

The store took money for more coupons than sale of actual food during the same period.

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

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Our law firm has immense experience managing SNAP violation letters. We can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP Violation action.

Sending the violation letter is the initial step which is taken by the USDA USDA to take away your right to take EBT benefits. This letter may come with no warning and can happen at any time. The charging letter contain details about alleged violations, but most letters will detail serious allegations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. Once 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.

After reviewing the store’s answer to the violation letter, the USDA may still feel that a violation has occurred. If this happens, they’ll will issue a second letter that specifically states their legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the allegations set forth. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you choose not to, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, our team the appeal and notify the USDA appeal the decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and we will draft draft an appellate brief which contains all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to fix the outcome.

If the USDA refuses to override the binding decision, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This process is like a normal federal court case, where you’ll have to do standard processes like 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’s a lot of rules and regulations which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, many retail store owners don’t run into problems. However, SNAP can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, SNAP recipients 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 fines, and penalties. If it’s believed you did a serious violation, then you may end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores didn’t even know SNAP violations were even occurring. Often, unethical employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to speak with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is delivered to your grocery store, you have only 10 days to respond to the violations. 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 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 a fighting change. Our lawyers can challenge the decision of the USDA and fight any decision. The penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose imposes large fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. The policy must be in writing and the policy must be at the time the violations were filed.

The retailer also 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 owners benefited from the violations, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any grocery store owner that gets a allegation 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.