Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Prescott Valley Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then may have received a letter of warning from the USDA. The letter is probably a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you are in violation of the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, which will contain transactions which happened at your store that the government claims violates one or more groups of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you should speak to our our legal team. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you choose to ignore, the government will terminate/suspend your stores ability to take EBT.

About The Program

The SNAP program provides families with funds to buy food each month. These benefits are distributed to consumers with an EBT card. The benefits on this card cannot be used for general use, and they cannot be used for cash back transactions. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued in the state where the consumer lives. This program is run on a national level by the federal government.

This 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’s a SNAP Violation

Snap violations happen if and when a grocery store violates any 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 accepted SNAP benefits in exchange for nonfood items like alcohol, tobacco, or other goods.

Your store submitted false info on the grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

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

Your employees accepted 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 violations letters. We can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all phases of a SNAP violation action.

Sending the violation letter is the first step which is taken by the USDA USDA to take away your right to take EBT benefits. This letter may come with no warning and can happen at any time. The SNAP violation letter contain details about alleged violations, but most of them will detail serious allegations, have evidence attached proving the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. Once you hire our law firm, 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 may still believe that a violation has occurred. If this happens, they’ll will issue another letter which outlines the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have ten days to appeal this verdict. If you don’t, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our law firm, we file the appeal to notify the government appeal the decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and we will draft draft the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is critical to fix the outcome.

In the event the USDA refuses to change the decision, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This next phase is like a normal court case, where you’ll be able to do discovery, file motions, and have a trial. We 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, SNAP can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. 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 it’s believed you did a major violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, store owners didn’t even know SNAP violations were even happening. In many situations, unethical employees 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 presented to your grocery store, you have only 10 days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Failure to respond will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will make a verdict even if you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you cannot defend your store. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you the ability to fight for your rights. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will challenge 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 does huge fines to curb 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 when the violations were filed.

The retailer must be able to prove the compliance policy was in existence before the allegations, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA typically also looks to check if the owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

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