Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Tulare Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then it’s possible have received a official notice from the USDA. This letter is probably a SNAP violation letter, which is stating you have violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, which will contain records of transactions which happened at your grocery store which the USDA is saying is in violation of one or more genres of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you should definitely speak to our our law firm. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you don’t respond, the government will terminate/suspend your grocery store’s ability to accept EBT.

About The SNAP Program

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

The program and it’s benefits 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 counts as a SNAP violation

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

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

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

The store submitted false info on the store’s application to accept EBT benefits.

The store redeemed more coupons than actual food sales at the same time.

Your employees have taken SNAP benefits from an unauthorized person who isn’t allowed to use the benefits.

How we can help defend you against a SNAP violation notice

Spodek Law Group has experience managing SNAP appeals letters. We can handle your SNAP violation process in all 3 phases of a SNAP violation action.

Sending the violation letter is the first step taken by the USDA to take away your right to take EBT benefits. This letter may come with, or without, prior warnings and can appear at any time. The charging letter has a variety of allegations, but most letters will lay out 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 handle all of the communicationswith the USDA and for compiling all the necessary evidence, and drafting a response to the USDA.

Once the USDA reviews your answer to the violation letter, the USDA might still feel that a violation has occurred. If that happens, they’ll will 100% issue another letter that outlines their legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the accusations previously mentioned. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you don’t, you’ll be stuck with the USDA decision. After you hire our firm, our team the appeal to notify the government appeal the decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and we will draft generate the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is necessary to overturn the decision.

In the event the USDA refuses to override the legal decision, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This process is like a normal case, where you’ll be able to do discovery, file motions, and have a trial. Our lawyers can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a food store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most normal situations, many grocery store owners don’t run into problems. However, SNAP can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, people getting SNAP benefits cant buy electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in fines, and penalties. If you conduct a serious violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, store owners don’t know the violations were even occurring. Often, dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP 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 charge letter is presented to your store, you have only ten days to respond to the violations. Failure to respond will permanently crush 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 won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our lawyers will challenge the findings of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The penalties 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 has to be in writing at the store and the policy must be when the allegations were filed.

The store owner also be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in existence before the allegations, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA typically also looks in order to check if the 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.

We highly recommend any store owner that receives 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.