Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Tyler Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then may have received a official notice from the USDA. The notification is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you violated the SNAP program. The USDA will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, which will contain transactions which occurred at your store that the USDA claims violates one or more categories of violations.

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 USDA will terminate/suspend your stores ability to accept EBT.

About The Program

The SNAP program helps families with get food each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed to consumers through an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on the EBT card cannot legally be used for general usage, and they cannot be used for cash back transactions. The cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued by each state individually where the recipient lives. The program is operated on a nationwide level by the federal government.

This government and the benefits that come with it are under handled 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 legal violations happen if and when a retail store violates any of the following rules.

The store is accused ofthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting benefits, or stealing the benefits.

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

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

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

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

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Spodek Law Group has experience handling SNAP appeals letters. Our law firm can handle your SNAP violation process in all 3 phases of a SNAP Violation action.

Sending the violation letter is the initial step which is taken by the USDA USDA to remove your right to take EBT benefits. This comes with, or without, prior warnings can come at any time. The charging letter contain details about alleged violations, but most letters will lay out serious allegations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. 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 might still believe that a violation has occurred. If this happens, the USDA will definitely send a second letter that outlines their decision to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have 10 days to appeal this verdict. If you don’t, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our firm, we file the appeal to notify them we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll collect necessary evidence, and our team will draft an appellate brief which contains all of the case law, evidence, etc. which is critical to fix the outcome.

In the event the USDA refuses to overturn the violation claim, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This process 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 have to obey in order to accept EBT. In most normal situations, many retail store owners have no problems adhering to them. However, SNAP can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, SNAP recipients cant purchase electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you should expect getting a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe fines. If you conduct a major violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores didn’t know the violations were even happening. In many situations, unethical employees are misusing the SNAP program. If you’re accused of a SNAP violation to speak with a SNAP violation attorney in order to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is sent to your store, you only have 10 days to respond to the allegations. Failure to respond will permanently harm your store. In addition, the USDA will generate a verdict even if you don’t respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you won’t be able to retain EBT benefits. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will fight the decision of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The financial 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 look to see if you have a store compliance policy. It has to be in writing at the store and in effect at the time the allegations were filed.

The store owner also has to 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 grocery store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store that gets a 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.