Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Weston Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then may have received a letter from the USDA. This notice is probably a SNAP violation notice, which is stating you have violated the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, which will have records of transactions that occurred at your grocery store which the government claims is in violation of one or more groups of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation notice, you must contact our law firm. Remember, you have only ten days to respond to the letter. If you don’t respond, the government will suspend your grocery store’s ability to accept EBT.

About The 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 cannot legally be used for general use, and they cannot be used for cash back transactions. The cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and the card is issued by each state individually where the consumer lives. The SNAP program is run on a nationwide level by the federal government.

The SNAP program 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 violations happen when a store violates any of the following rules.

The store is accused ofthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting the benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

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

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

Your employees accepted SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t eligible to use the benefits.

How to defend your store against a SNAP violation

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

The charging letter is the initial step taken by the USDA to take away your right to take EBT benefits. This letter may come with no warning can come at any time. The SNAP violation letter will contain allegations, but most of them will lay out violations, with an attachment of details. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. After 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 SNAP violation letter, the USDA might still feel that your store has violated the rules. If this happens, the USDA will 100% issue a second letter that specifically states the agencies legal verdict to suspend or disqualify the store based on the allegations set forth. Like before, you have ten days to protest this verdict. If you choose not to, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our lawyers, we’ll file the legal papers and notify the government appeal the decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and we will draft generate the necessary appeals briefs containing all of the case law, evidence, etc. which is necessary to change the outcome of the violations.

If the USDA refuses to override the decision, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This process is like a normal federal court 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 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, SNAP 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. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If it’s believed you did a serious violation, then you may end up with either a permanent or temporary disqualification. In many situations, store owners don’t even know the violations are even occurring. Often, unethical employees who are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to consult with a SNAP violation attorney in order to ensure 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 allegations. Failure to respond will permanently harm your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will deliver a verdict even if you don’t respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, you cannot defend your store. Retaining a SNAP violation lawyer gives you a fighting change. Our SNAP appeals lawyers will challenge the decision 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 huge fines to curb violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. The policy must be in writing and the policy must be when the allegations were filed.

The retailer also has to 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 retail store owners benefited from the violations, or if the business owners were aware of the fraud. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

It’s highly recommended any store owner that gets a 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.