Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Scottsdale Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then you might have received a official notice from the USDA. The notice is probably 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, which will have transactions which happened at your retail store which the government is saying violates one or more categories of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you must 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 grocery store’s ability to accept EBT.

About The SNAP Program

This program provides families with a certain amount of money each month. These benefits are distributed to consumers with an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on this card cannot legally be used for general usage, and they cannot be used for fraudulent cash back services. The EBT cards took the place of 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.

The SNAP 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 does it mean to have a SNAP violation

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

The grocery store was involved intrafficking SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

The store submitted incorrect information on your store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

The store took money for more coupons than sale of actual food over the same period.

Your employees 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 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 taken by the USDA to remove your right to take EBT benefits. This comes with no warning and can happen at any time. The charging letter has a variety of allegations, but most letters will detail serious allegations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. Once you hire our law firm, we 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 may still decide that a violation has occurred. If this happens, they’ll will issue another letter which specifically states their legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the accusations previously mentioned. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you choose not to, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, we file the legal papers and notify the USDA we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and we will draft draft the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is critical to change the outcome of the violations.

If the USDA refuses to override 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 have to do standard processes like discovery, file motions, and have a trial. Our attorneys can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a grocery store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, many retail store owners don’t run into problems. However, USDA’s SNAP program can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, SNAP recipients cant get electronic goods. If, and when, 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 you conduct a major violation, then you may end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, store owners don’t even know the violations were even happening. Often, it’s dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation attorney in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is sent to your retail store, you only have 10 days to respond to the claims. Failure to respond to the violations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will make a verdict even though you don’t respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you cannot defend your store. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our lawyers will fight the findings of the USDA and fight any penalties. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully imposes huge fines to curb violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. It has to be in writing at the store and the policy must be when the violations were filed.

The retailer also has to be able to prove the compliance policy was in place before the charge, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA typically also looks in order to see if the grocery store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any owner 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.