Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

St. Paul Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then you might have received a official notice from the USDA. This notice is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is alleging you have violated the SNAP program. The government will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, which will contain transactions that happened at your grocery store which the government claims violates one or more groups of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you should speak to our our law firm. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you choose to ignore, the USDA will suspend your stores ability to take EBT.

About The SNAP Program

The SNAP program helps families with funds to buy food each month. These benefits are given through an EBT card. The benefits on this card aren’t for general usage, and they can’t be used for cash back services. The cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued in the state where the consumer lives. The program is run on a nationwide level by the 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’s a SNAP Violation

SNAP legal violations occur when a store violates any of the rules below.

The store is accused oftrafficking SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

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

The grocery store took money for more EBT food stamps than sale of actual food during the same period.

Your employees took SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t allowed to use them.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Spodek Law Group has experience managing SNAP violations letters. We 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. This letter may come with, or without, prior warnings and can happen at any time. The SNAP violation letter will have allegations in it, but most letters will outline violations, with an attachment of details. You have only 10 days to respond. After you hire our law firm, we 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 violation letter, the USDA may still feel that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, the USDA will 100% issue another letter that specifically states the agencies legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the alleged violations. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you don’t, then you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. Once you hire our firm, we file the necessary paperwork and notify the government appeal the decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and we will draft draft the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is necessary to change the outcome of the violations.

If the USDA refuses to overturn the binding decision, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District 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 grocery store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, many retail store owners have no problems adhering to them. 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 purchase electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can include fines and penalties. If you conduct a serious violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, store owners didn’t even know the violations were even occurring. In many situations, it’s dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to speak with a SNAP violation lawyer in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is delivered to your grocery store, you have only 10 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 make a verdict even though 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 lawyers can discredit the findings of the USDA and appeal any decision. The fines imposed can be huge – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully does large fines to curb violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. The policy must 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 above mentioned policy was in place before the charge, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA typically also looks in order to check if the retail store owners benefited from the violations, or were aware of the violation. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store that receives a 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.