Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Rockwall Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then you might have received a notice from the USDA. This notice is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you are in violation of the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, and it will have transactions that happened at your grocery store that the government is saying is in violation of one or more groups of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation letter, you should definitely contact our law firm. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you don’t respond, the USDA will suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT.

About The SNAP Program

The SNAP program helps families with funds to buy food each month. These benefits are distributed with an EBT card. The benefits on the card are not for general use, and they cannot be used for cash back transactions. The 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 national level by the federal government.

This program and it’s parameters are governed by the US Code and the Code of Federal Regulations. The USDA FNS agency enforces the regulations and runs the program.

What does it mean to have a SNAP violation

Snap violations occur if and when a grocery store is in violation of the following rules.

The grocery store was involved inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting taking the 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.

Your grocery store took money for more coupons than food sales over the same period.

Your employees have taken SNAP benefits from an unauthorized person who isn’t allowed to use the benefits.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Our law firm has immense experience handling SNAP appeals letters. Our team of attorneys can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all phases of a SNAP violation action.

Sending the letter is the first step which is going to be taken by USDA to take away your right to take EBT benefits. The letter can come with, or without, prior warnings and can happen at any time. The charging letter contain details about alleged violations, but most letters will lay out violations, have evidence attached proving the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. 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 notice of violation, the USDA might still feel that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, the USDA will definitely send a second letter that outlines the governments legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have ten days to appeal the verdict. If you choose not to, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our firm, we’ll file the appeal to notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and we will draft draft the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is necessary to change the outcome of the violations.

If the USDA refuses to change the binding decision, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. The Judicial Appeal is like a normal case, where you’ll be able to do discovery, file motions, and have a trial. Our lawyers can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a grocery store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, many retail store owners have no issues adhering to them. However, SNAP can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limits on how the funds can be used. For example, people getting SNAP benefits 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 serious violation, then you may end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, store owners don’t even know SNAP violations are even occurring. In many situations, dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to consult with a SNAP violation lawyer in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is presented to your store, you have only 10 days to respond to the violations. Failure to respond will permanently crush your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will generate a verdict even if 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 SNAP appeals lawyers will fight the findings of the USDA and appeal any decision. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose does huge fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. It must be in writing and in effect at the time the violations were filed.

The store owner 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 typically also looks to see if the grocery store owners benefited from the violations, or were aware of the violation. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store owner that receives a allegation 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.