Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Mountain View Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then you might have been the recipient of a a notice from the USDA. This notification is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is stating you are in violation of the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, which will have transactions that occurred at your grocery store that the government is saying violates one or more genres of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation letter, you should definitely speak to our our law firm. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you choose to ignore, the government will suspend your stores ability to accept EBT.

About The Program

This program helps families with a certain amount of money each month. The SNAP program benefits are given with an EBT card. The benefits on the EBT card aren’t for general use, and they can’t be used for cash back services. The 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 run on a nationwide level by the government.

This program and it’s parameters 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 if and when a grocery store is in violation of the following rules.

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

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

Your store submitted false information on your store’s 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 an unauthorized person who isn’t allowed to use the benefits.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Spodek Law Group 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 going to be taken by USDA to take away your right to take EBT benefits. The letter can come with no warning can come at any time. The charging letter will have allegations in it, but most letters will mention violations, have evidence attached proving 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.

After reviewing the store’s answer to the SNAP violation letter, the USDA might still decide that a violation has occurred. If this happens, the USDA will issue a second letter which specifically states the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the store based on the alleged violations. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you choose not to, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our lawyers, we’ll file the appeal and notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and we will draft generate an appellate brief containing all of the case law, evidence, etc. which is necessary to change the outcome of the violations.

If the USDA refuses to change the binding decision, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This process is like a normal court case, where you’ll have to do standard processes like discovery, file motions, and have a trial. Our attorneys can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a grocery store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, many grocery store owners don’t run into problems. However, SNAP can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, people getting SNAP benefits cant purchase electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If you conduct a major SNAP violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, store owners don’t know SNAP violations are even happening. Often, unethical employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to discuss your case with a SNAP violation attorney to ensure 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 claims by the USDA. Your failure to respond to the violations will permanently crush 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. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our lawyers can challenge the findings of the USDA and fight any decision. The fines imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully chooses to impose large fines to curb violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. The policy has to be in writing at the store and in effect at the time the allegations were filed.

The retailer also be able to prove the compliance policy was in existence before the allegations, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA typically also looks to check if the grocery store owners benefited from the violations, or were aware of the violation. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any grocery store owner that receives a allegation letter consult with a SNAP violation attorney. Choosing not to respond 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.