Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

St. Clair Shores Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then may have received a notice from the USDA. The notice is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is alleging you violated the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, which will have transactions that occurred at your store that the USDA is saying is in violation of one or more genres of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you must speak to our our legal team. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you don’t respond, the government will terminate/suspend your stores ability 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 cash back transactions. The cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued by each state individually which the SNAP participant lives. This program is operated on a nationwide level by the government.

The program and the benefits that come with it 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 legal violations occur when a store is in violation of the following rules.

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

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

The store submitted false info on your grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

The grocery store took money for more coupons than sale of actual food at the same time.

Your employees took SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t eligible to use the benefits.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

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.

The charging letter is the first step taken by the USDA to take away your EBT license. This letter may come with, or without, prior warnings and can happen at any time. The violation letter has a variety of allegations, but most of them will detail serious allegations, with an attachment of details. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. After you hire Spodek Law Group, 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 might still feel that a violation has occurred. If this happens, they’ll will definitely send another letter which outlines their legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the store based on the allegations set forth. Like before, you have 10 days to appeal this decision. If you don’t, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our law firm, we file the necessary paperwork to notify the government appeal the decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and our team will generate an appellate brief containing all of the legal laws, evidence, etc. which is needed to overturn the decision.

If the USDA refuses to override the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal District 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 you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, 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 limits on how the funds can be used. For example, SNAP recipients cant buy 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 fines. If you conduct a major SNAP violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores didn’t know the violations are even happening. Often, dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to consult with a SNAP violation attorney in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a SNAP violation letter is delivered to your store, you only have ten days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Your failure to respond to the allegations will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will deliver a verdict even if you choose not to respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you cannot defend your store. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will fight the findings of the USDA and fight any penalties. The financial penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose chooses to impose large 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 the policy must be when the violations were filed.

The store owner must has to be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in place before the charge, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA will also look in order to check 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.

It’s highly recommended any 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.