Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Norwich Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then you might have received a letter of warning from the USDA. The notification is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is claiming you have violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, which will contain transactions that occurred at your retail store which the USDA is saying violates one or more genres of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you must 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 suspend your grocery store’s ability to accept EBT payments.

About The Program

This program provides families with money each month. These benefits are given through an EBT card. The funds on the card are not for general use, and they cannot be used for cash back transactions. The cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued in the state where the recipient lives. The SNAP program is run on a nationwide level by the federal government.

The SNAP government and it’s benefits 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 counts as a SNAP violation

Snap violations occur when a grocery store violates any of the rules below.

The retail store is accused oftrafficking SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting the benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

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

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

Your employees have taken 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 violations letters. We can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP action.

The charging 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, or without, prior warnings can come at any time. The SNAP violation letter will contain allegations, but most letters will mention serious allegations, have evidence attached proving the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. After 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.

After reviewing the store’s answer to the notice of violation, the USDA may still decide that your store has violated the rules. If this happens, the USDA will 100% issue a second letter that outlines their decision to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the alleged violations. 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, our team the legal papers to notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and we will draft generate the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to fix the outcome.

In the event the USDA refuses to overturn the legal decision, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. The Judicial Appeal is like a normal federal court case, where you’ll be able to do 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 are many laws which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, many grocery store owners don’t run into problems. 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. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If you conduct a serious violation, then you may end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores didn’t know the violations are even happening. In many situations, it’s dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation attorney in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is delivered to your grocery store, you have only ten days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently crush your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will make a verdict even though you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will fight the findings 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 imposes huge fines to curb violations. The USDA will typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. It must be in writing and the policy must be at the time the allegations were filed.

The grocery store also has to be able to prove the compliance policy was in existence before the allegations, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA will also look in order to see if the retail store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any grocery store owner that receives a 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.