Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Santa Clarita Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then may have gotten a notice from the USDA. The notice is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is stating you violated the SNAP program. The USDA will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, which will contain records of transactions which happened at your store that the USDA is saying is in violation of one or more categories of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation letter, you should definitely contact our legal team. 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 payments.

About The SNAP Program

This program helps families with money each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed to consumers through an EBT card. The funds on this card cannot be used for general usage, and they can’t be used for fraudulent cash back services. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued by each state individually where the recipient lives. The program is run on a national level by the federal government.

The SNAP government 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 counts as a SNAP violation

SNAP legal violations occur if and when a store is in violation of the rules below.

The grocery store took part inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting benefits, or stealing the benefits.

The retail 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 took money for more EBT food stamps than sale of actual food at the same time.

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

How we can help defend you against a SNAP violation notice

Our law firm has experience managing SNAP violations letters. Our law firm 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 EBT license. The letter can come with, or without, prior warnings and can happen at any time. The charging letter has a variety of allegations, but most of them will lay out serious allegations, with an attachment of details. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. 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.

After reviewing the store’s answer to the notice of violation, the USDA might still feel that a violation has occurred. If this happens, the USDA will 100% issue a second letter that outlines their legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have 10 days to appeal this decision. If you choose not to, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our law firm, we’ll file the legal papers and notify them we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and we will draft generate the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is critical to overturn the decision.

If the USDA refuses to overturn the binding decision, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This next phase is like a normal 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 food store retailer, there are many laws have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most normal situations, 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, SNAP recipients cant buy electronic goods. 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 SNAP violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores didn’t even know the violations were even happening. Often, it’s dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to consult with a SNAP violation attorney to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is presented to your store, you have only ten days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Your failure to respond to the violations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will deliver a verdict even though you choose not to respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you cannot defend your store. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our lawyers will challenge the decision of the USDA and fight any decision. The fines imposed can be huge – 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 has to be in writing and in effect when the allegations were filed.

The retailer must has to be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in existence before the allegations, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA typically also looks to see if the grocery store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the 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 allegation letter speak to 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.