Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Wilkes-Barre Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your retail store, then it’s possible have been the recipient of a a notice from the USDA. This notification is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is alleging you have violated the SNAP program. The government will include proof to the SNAP violation notice, and it will contain records of transactions which happened at your store that the government is saying violates one or more groups of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, you must contact 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 ability to take EBT.

About The Program

This program provides families with a certain amount of money each month. The SNAP program benefits are distributed via an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on this card cannot legally be used for general usage, and they cannot be used for fraudulent cash back transactions. The cards took the place of food stamps in the 1990’s and are issued in the state which the SNAP participant lives. The SNAP program is run on a national level by the federal government.

This program 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’s a SNAP Violation

Snap violations happen when a store is in violation of the rules below.

The retail store was involved intrafficking SNAP benefits. Examples of this is fraudulently accepting 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 grocery stores application to accept EBT benefits.

Your grocery store took money for more EBT food stamps than food sales at the same time.

The employees of the store accepted SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t eligible to use the benefits.

Defending against a SNAP Violation Letter

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

Sending the violation letter is the first step which is taken by the USDA USDA to remove your EBT license. This letter may come with no warning and can happen at any time. The charging letter will have allegations in it, but most of them will mention serious allegations, with an attachment of details. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. Once 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 SNAP violation letter, the USDA might still believe that a violation has occurred. If that happens, the USDA will issue a second letter which specifically states their decision to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the alleged violations. Like before, you have 10 days to protest the decision. If you don’t, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our firm, we’ll file the legal papers to notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and our team will draft the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the case law, evidence, etc. which is critical to change the outcome of the violations.

If the USDA refuses to change the decision, in the Administrative Review, our lawyers will file a Judicial review at the local Federal District Court. This next phase is like a normal case, where you’ll be able to do 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 grocery 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 buy electronic goods. If you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in severe and business crushing penalties. If you conduct a serious SNAP violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, store owners don’t even know the violations were even happening. Often, dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to consult with a SNAP violation lawyer in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is sent to your retail store, you only have ten days to respond to the violations. Your failure to respond to the violations will permanently crush your store. In addition, the USDA will make 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 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 on purpose chooses to impose large fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA look to see if you have a store compliance policy. The policy has to be in writing and the policy must be when the allegations were filed.

The retailer also has to be able to prove the compliance policy was in existence before the allegations, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA will also look 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.

It’s highly recommended 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.