Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Vineland Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then it’s possible have been the recipient of a a official notice from the USDA. This notice is most likely a SNAP violation notice, which is claiming you have violated the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation letter, and it will have transactions which occurred at your retail store which the government is saying is in violation of one or more categories of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you should speak to our our law firm. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you choose to ignore, the government will suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT payments.

About The SNAP Program

This program provides families with money each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed to consumers with an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on this card cannot legally be used for general use, and they can’t be used for fraudulent cash back services. The cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued by each state individually which the SNAP participant lives. The SNAP program is run on a nationwide level by the government.

This program and it’s parameters 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’s a SNAP Violation

Snap violations occur if and when a store violates any of the rules below.

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

Your grocery store accepted SNAP benefits 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 grocery store took money for more EBT food stamps than actual food sales over the same period.

Your employees took SNAP benefits from someone who shouldn’t be allowed to use the benefits.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

Spodek Law Group has experience handling SNAP appeals letters. Our team of attorneys can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP action.

Sending the letter is the first step which is going to be taken by USDA to take away your EBT license. This letter may come with no warning and can happen at any time. The SNAP violation letter contain details about alleged violations, but most letters will mention violations, have evidence attached proving the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. After you hire Spodek Law Group, we take into their hands 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 decide that your store has violated the rules. If this happens, the USDA will definitely send a second letter that specifically states the agencies legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the store based on the accusations previously mentioned. Like before, you have ten days to protest this decision. If you don’t, then you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. After you hire our firm, our team the appeal to notify them we are going to appeal their decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and our team will generate an appellate brief which contains all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is critical to change the outcome of the violations.

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 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 cases, 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, people getting SNAP benefits cant get electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in fines, and penalties. If it’s believed you did a serious violation, then you might end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores didn’t even know SNAP violations were even occurring. Often, it’s dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP 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 presented to your retail store, you have only 10 days to respond to the claims. Your failure to respond to the violations will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will generate a verdict even though 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 the ability to fight for your rights. Our SNAP appeals lawyers can challenge the decision of the USDA and appeal any decision. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully imposes large 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 the policy must be when the allegations were filed.

The store owner also be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in place before the charge, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA typically also looks in order to check if the grocery store owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. If the management was involved it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any grocery store owner that gets a violation 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.