Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Quincy Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then it’s possible have received a official notice from the USDA. The notice is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, and it will have records of transactions that happened at your retail store which the government is saying violates one or more groups of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you should definitely speak to our our law firm. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the government will terminate/suspend your grocery store’s ability to accept EBT payments.

About The Program

The SNAP program helps families with a certain amount of money each month. These benefits are distributed to consumers via an EBT card. The funds on the EBT card cannot be used for general use, and they cannot be used for fraudulent cash back services. The EBT cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued by each state individually which the SNAP participant lives. The SNAP program is operated on a national level by the federal government.

This government and it’s parameters 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’s a SNAP Violation

Snap violations occur if and when a grocery store violates any of the following rules.

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

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

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

The store took money for more EBT food stamps than food sales over the same period.

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

How to defend your store against a SNAP violation

Spodek Law Group has immense experience handling SNAP violation letters. Our law firm can handle your SNAP violation process in all 3 phases of a SNAP violation action.

Sending the violation letter is the initial step which is going to be taken by USDA to take away your EBT license. The letter can come with, or without, prior warnings and can appear at any time. The charging letter has a variety of allegations, but most letters will detail serious allegations, with an attachment of details. You have only 10 days to respond. 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.

Once the USDA reviews your answer to the SNAP violation letter, the USDA may still decide that your store has violated the rules. If this happens, they’ll will 100% issue a second letter that outlines their decision to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the allegations set forth. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you don’t, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our law firm, our team the necessary paperwork 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 which contains all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is necessary to change the outcome of the violations.

In the event the USDA refuses to overturn the binding decision, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. The Judicial Appeal is like a normal court case, where you’ll have to do standard processes like discovery, file motions, and have a trial. We can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a food store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most cases, many grocery store owners don’t run into problems. However, the SNAP program can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, SNAP recipients cant buy electronic goods. If, and when, you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If it’s believed you did a major violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, store owners didn’t know SNAP violations were even happening. In many situations, it’s dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to consult with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is sent to your grocery store, you only have 10 days to respond to the claims. Your failure to respond will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will make a verdict even though you choose not to respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our lawyers can challenge the decision of the USDA and fight any decision. The penalties imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully does large 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 when the violations were filed.

The grocery store must 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 owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or were aware of the violation. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any store owner that receives a allegation letter consult 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.