Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Weslaco Snap Violation Lawyers

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

After you get a SNAP violation letter, you must speak to our our law firm. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you choose to ignore, the government will suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT.

About The SNAP Program

The SNAP program helps families with funds to buy food each month. The SNAP program benefits are given via an EBT card. The benefits on this card aren’t for general usage, and they cannot be used for cash back transactions. The EBT cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued by each state individually where the consumer lives. This program is operated on a nationwide level by the 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 legal violations happen if and when a store violates any of the rules below.

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

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

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

Your grocery store took money for more coupons 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.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

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

Sending the violation letter is the initial step which is taken by the USDA USDA to remove your EBT license. This letter may come with, or without, prior warnings and can appear at any time. The violation letter will contain 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. 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 violation letter, the USDA might still decide that your store has violated the rules. If that happens, they’ll will 100% issue another letter which outlines the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the grocery store based on the allegations set forth. 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 lawyers, we file the appeal and notify the USDA appeal the decision. Our lawyers gather necessary evidence, and we will draft draft an appellate brief which contains all of the legal laws, legal evidence, etc. which is critical to change the outcome of the violations.

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 District Court. The Judicial Appeal is like a normal court case, where you’ll have to do standard processes like discovery, file motions, and have a trial. Our law firm can handle these cases in all 50 states.

SNAP Violations

As a food store retailer, there are many laws you have to adhere to for EBT. In most cases, many grocery store owners have no problems adhering to them. However, the 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 purchase electronic goods. If, and when, you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Snap violation penalties can result in fines, and penalties. If you conduct a major SNAP violation, then you may end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores didn’t even know the violations are even occurring. In many situations, dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is delivered to your retail store, you have only ten days to respond to the violations. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will deliver a verdict even if you choose not to respond to the allegations. In the absence of a SNAP violation attorney, you cannot defend your store. Hiring a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our lawyers will discredit the decision of the USDA and fight any decision. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA on purpose chooses to impose huge fines to curb violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. The policy must be in writing at the store and the policy must be at the time the violations were filed.

The retailer also be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in place before the charge, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA will also look in order to check if the grocery store owners benefited from the violations, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. If the managers were involved, it can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any owner that gets 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.