Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Pacifica Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then you might have gotten a letter of warning from the USDA. The notice is probably a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you have violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation letter, and it will have transactions which occurred at your retail store that the USDA claims is in violation of one or more groups of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you must contact our legal team. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will terminate/suspend your grocery store’s ability to accept EBT payments.

About The SNAP Program

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

The program 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 grocery store violates any of the rules below.

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

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

Your store submitted false information on your grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

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

Your employees 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

Spodek Law Group has immense experience handling SNAP violations letters. Our team of attorneys can handle your SNAP violation process in all phases of a SNAP violation action.

Sending the letter is the initial step taken by the USDA to take away your EBT license. This letter may come with no warning can come at any time. The SNAP violation letter has a variety of allegations, but most of them will lay out violations, have evidence attached proving the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. After you hire our law firm, we take into their hands 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 feel that a violation has occurred. If this happens, they’ll will 100% issue another letter that outlines the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the accusations previously mentioned. Like before, you have ten days to protest this decision. If you don’t, then you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our firm, our team the appeal to notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and we will draft draft the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the case law, evidence, etc. which is needed to fix the outcome.

If the USDA refuses to overturn 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 lawyers can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a food store retailer, there are many laws 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 limits on how the funds can be used. For example, SNAP recipients cant buy electronic goods. As a retailer, 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 major SNAP violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores didn’t even know SNAP violations were even occurring. In many situations, unethical employees who are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation lawyer in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is sent to your store, you only have 10 days to respond to the violations. Failure to respond to the violations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will deliver a verdict even though you choose not to respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers can fight the findings of the USDA and fight any decision. The financial penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully chooses to impose 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 allegations were filed.

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

It’s highly recommended any store owner that gets a violation 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.