Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

New Haven Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then may have been the recipient of a a official notice from the USDA. This notice is probably a SNAP violation letter, which is stating you violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, and it will have transactions which happened at your store which the USDA claims violates one or more categories of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation letter, 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 terminate/suspend your stores privilege to take EBT.

About The Program

The SNAP program provides families with money each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed to consumers with an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on the EBT card cannot be used for general use, and they can’t be used for cash back services. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued in the state which the SNAP participant lives. This program is run on a nationwide level by the federal government.

This federal 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 counts as a SNAP violation

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

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

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

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

The grocery store redeemed more coupons than food sales over the same period.

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

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Spodek Law Group has immense experience managing SNAP appeals letters. We can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all phases of a SNAP Violation action.

Sending the violation letter is the first step which is taken by the USDA USDA to remove your right to take EBT benefits. This letter may come with no warning can come at any time. The violation letter contain details about alleged violations, but most letters will mention violations, have evidence attached proving the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. Once you hire our law firm, we handle 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 might still decide that a violation has occurred. If this happens, they’ll will definitely send a second letter which outlines the governments decision to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have ten days to appeal this decision. If you choose not to, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our firm, we file the appeal to notify them we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and our team will draft an appellate brief which contains all of the case law, evidence, etc. which is necessary to change the outcome of the violations.

In the event the USDA refuses to override the decision, in the Administrative Review, we 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 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 have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most normal situations, 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 limitations. For example, people getting SNAP benefits cant get electronic goods. If, and when, you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can include fines and penalties. If it’s believed you did a major violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, store owners don’t even know SNAP violations are even happening. Often, unethical employees are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to speak with a SNAP violation lawyer in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is presented to your store, you have only ten days to respond to the claims. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will generate 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. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers can discredit the decision of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The fines imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose chooses to impose large fines to curb violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. It must be in writing and in effect at the time the allegations were filed.

The grocery store also be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in place before the charge, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA typically also looks in order to see if the grocery store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or were aware of the violation. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any 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.