Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Palm Coast Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then you might have been the recipient of a a letter from the USDA. This notification is probably a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you have violated the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, and it will contain transactions that occurred at your retail store which the government claims violates one or more genres of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you should contact our law firm. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will suspend your stores ability to accept EBT.

About The Program

The SNAP program helps families with money each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed with an EBT card. The benefits on the card cannot legally be used for general use, and they cannot be used for fraudulent cash back transactions. The cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued in the state where the consumer lives. The program is operated on a nationwide level by the federal government.

The program and it’s parameters 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 legal violations happen when a retail store is in violation of the following rules.

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

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

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

Your grocery store redeemed more coupons than actual food sales during the same period.

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

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Spodek Law Group has experience handling SNAP violation letters. We can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all phases of a SNAP 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. This letter may come with, or without, prior warnings and can happen at any time. The SNAP violation letter will have allegations in it, but most of them will outline violations, have evidence attached proving the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. After you hire Spodek Law Group, our lawyers take into their hands 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 may still decide that a violation has occurred. If that happens, the USDA will definitely send a second letter that specifically states their decision to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have ten days to protest this verdict. If you don’t, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our lawyers, we file the legal papers and notify the government appeal the decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and we will draft generate the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is necessary to change the outcome of the violations.

If the USDA refuses to override the legal decision, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This next phase is like a normal federal court 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 grocery store retailer, there are many laws have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most cases, 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 buy electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you’ll probably 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 many situations, owners of grocery stores didn’t know the violations are even happening. Often, dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to speak with a SNAP violation lawyer to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is sent to your retail store, you only have 10 days to respond to the claims. Your failure to respond to the allegations will permanently crush your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will deliver 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 the ability to fight for your rights. Our lawyers will challenge 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 purposefully does huge fines to curb violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. It has to be in writing and the policy must be at the time the allegations were filed.

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

It’s highly recommended any owner that gets a allegation 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.