Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Tinley Park Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then it’s possible have gotten a official notice from the USDA. This letter is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you are in violation of the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, and it will contain transactions which happened at your store that the government claims violates one or more genres of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation letter, you should definitely contact our legal team. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you don’t respond, the USDA will suspend your grocery store’s ability to accept EBT payments.

About The SNAP Program

This program provides families with get food each month. The SNAP program benefits are given with an EBT card. The benefits on the EBT card are not for general use, and they can’t be used for cash back transactions. The cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued by each state individually where the consumer lives. The SNAP program is run on a national level by the federal government.

The federal and the benefits that come with it 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 happen when a grocery store is in violation of the rules below.

The store took part intrafficking SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

Your store submitted false information on the store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

The grocery store redeemed more coupons than food sales during the same period.

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

How to defend your store against a SNAP violation

Spodek Law Group has immense experience handling SNAP violation letters. We can handle your SNAP violation process in all phases of a SNAP action.

The charging letter is the initial step which is going to be taken by USDA to take away your EBT license. This letter may come with, or without, prior warnings can come at any time. The violation letter will have allegations in it, but most of them will outline violations, 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 SNAP violation letter, the USDA might still believe that a violation has occurred. If this happens, they’ll will definitely send another 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 decision. If you don’t, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, our team the legal papers to notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and our team will draft an appellate brief which contains all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is critical to fix the outcome.

In the event the USDA refuses to change the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This next phase is like a normal federal court 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 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 buy electronic goods. If, and when, you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe fines. If you conduct a serious violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores don’t even know the violations were even happening. In many situations, it’s dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to consult with a SNAP violation attorney in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

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

The retailer must be able to prove the compliance policy was in existence before the allegations, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA typically also looks in order to check if the owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or were aware of the violation. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any grocery store owner that gets 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.