Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Petaluma Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then it’s possible have gotten a official notice from the USDA. This notification is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is stating you are in violation of the SNAP program. The USDA will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, which will have transactions that happened at your grocery store that the government is saying is in violation of one or more categories of violations.

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

About The SNAP Program

The SNAP program helps families with a certain amount of money each month. These benefits are distributed to consumers through an EBT card. The funds on the EBT card are not for general usage, 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 operated on a national level by the federal government.

This government and the benefits that come with it 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 violations occur if and when a retail store is in violation of the rules below.

The retail store took part intrafficking SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

The store submitted false information on your retail stores application to accept EBT benefits.

Your grocery store redeemed more EBT food stamps than food sales at the same time.

Your employees took SNAP benefits from someone who shouldn’t be allowed to use the benefits.

How to defend your store against a SNAP violation

Spodek Law Group has experience handling SNAP appeals letters. Our law firm can handle your SNAP violation process in all 3 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 comes with no warning and can appear at any time. The SNAP violation letter will contain allegations, but most of them will mention serious allegations, have evidence attached proving the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. After you hire Spodek Law Group, 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 violation letter, the USDA may still feel that your store has violated the rules. If this happens, the USDA will definitely send another letter that specifically states the governments decision to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the accusations previously mentioned. Like before, you have ten days to appeal the verdict. If you don’t, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our firm, we file the appeal and notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and we will draft generate an appellate brief containing all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is critical to change the outcome of the violations.

If the USDA refuses to overturn the decision, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This process 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 grocery 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, 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, SNAP recipients cant get electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can include fines and penalties. If it’s believed you did a major SNAP violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, store owners don’t know the violations are even happening. In many situations, unethical employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is delivered to your store, you have only 10 days to respond to the claims. Failure to respond will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will make a verdict even if you choose not to respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you cannot defend your store. 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 appeal any decision. The financial penalties imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose imposes huge fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. It has to be in writing at the store and in effect 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 was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA typically also looks in order to see if the retail store owners benefited from the violations, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any store that receives 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.