Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Olathe Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then may have gotten a letter from the USDA. This notice is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is alleging you are in violation of the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, which will have transactions which occurred at your retail store which the government is saying violates one or more groups of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you must contact our law firm. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you don’t respond, the government will terminate/suspend your grocery store’s ability to accept EBT.

About The Program

This program provides families with get food each month. These benefits are distributed to consumers via an EBT card. The funds on the EBT card cannot legally be used 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 where the recipient lives. The SNAP program is operated on a nationwide level by the government.

The SNAP government and it’s benefits are under handled by the US Code and the Code of Federal Regulations. The USDA FNS agency enforces the regulations and runs the program.

What’s a SNAP Violation

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

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

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

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

Your store redeemed more coupons than sale of actual food over the same period.

The employees of the store took SNAP benefits from an unauthorized person who isn’t allowed to use the benefits.

How we can help defend you against a SNAP violation notice

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

The charging letter is the initial step taken by the USDA to remove your EBT license. This comes with no warning can come at any time. The SNAP violation letter has a variety of allegations, but most of them will lay out 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 might still feel that a violation has occurred. If this happens, the USDA will definitely send another letter that specifically states the governments legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the allegations set forth. Like before, you have 10 days to appeal this verdict. If you don’t, then you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our firm, we file the appeal to notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and we will draft draft the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is critical to change the outcome of the violations.

In the event the USDA refuses to change the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This next phase is like a normal 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 food store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, many grocery store owners have no issues adhering to them. 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, people getting SNAP benefits cant get electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in fines, and penalties. If you conduct a serious violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, store owners don’t know the violations were even happening. Often, it’s dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to consult with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is presented to your retail store, you have only 10 days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Failure to respond will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will make a verdict even if 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 the ability to fight for your rights. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will discredit the decision of the USDA and fight any decision. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose chooses to impose huge fines to in order to curb future 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 when the allegations were filed.

The retailer 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 to check if the grocery store owners benefited from the violations, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any owner that gets a letter speak to 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.