Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Vallejo Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your retail store, then it’s possible have gotten a official notice from the USDA. The notice is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is stating you violated the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, and it will have records of transactions that occurred at your store which the government claims is in violation of one or more groups of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you should contact 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 stores ability to accept EBT.

About The Program

The SNAP program provides families with a certain amount of money each month. The SNAP program benefits are given via an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on the card cannot legally be used for general use, and they cannot be used for fraudulent cash back transactions. The EBT cards took over for food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued by each state individually where the consumer lives. This program is run on a nationwide level by the government.

This federal and it’s benefits 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 counts as a SNAP violation

SNAP legal violations occur if and when a retail store violates any of the following rules.

The store took part intrafficking SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting taking the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

Your store submitted incorrect info on your grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

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

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

How to defend your store against a SNAP violation

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

Sending the letter is the first step taken by the USDA to take away your EBT license. The letter can come with no warning and can happen at any time. The SNAP violation letter has a variety of allegations, but most letters will detail serious allegations, have evidence attached proving the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. After you hire our law firm, 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 notice of violation, the USDA might still believe that a violation has occurred. If that happens, the USDA will issue a second letter which outlines the governments 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. After you hire our firm, we’ll file the legal papers to notify the government appeal the decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and our team will draft an appellate brief containing all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to overturn the decision.

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

SNAP Violations

As a grocery store retailer, there’s a lot of rules and regulations which you have to adhere to for EBT. In most normal situations, many retail 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 get electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in severe fines. If it’s believed you did a serious SNAP violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, store owners didn’t know SNAP violations were even happening. In many situations, dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to consult 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 retail store, you have only ten days to respond to the violations. Failure to respond will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will generate 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. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will challenge the findings of the USDA and fight any penalties. The penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully does large fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. It must be in writing and the policy must be when the violations were filed.

The retailer must has to be able to prove the compliance policy was in place before the charge, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA typically also looks in order to see if the grocery 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 grocery store owner that receives a violation 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.