Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

Wilmington Snap Violation Lawyers

If you accept EBT at your grocery store, then it’s possible have received a letter of warning 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 which occurred at your store which the government claims is in violation of one or more genres of violations.

After you get a SNAP violation notice, 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 USDA will suspend your stores privilege to accept EBT payments.

About The Program

The SNAP program helps families with money each month. These benefits are given through an EBT card. The SNAP benefits on the EBT card are not for general use, 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. This program is operated on a national level by the federal government.

This federal and it’s parameters 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 occur when a grocery store violates any of the following rules.

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

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

The store submitted false information on the retail stores application to accept EBT benefits.

The grocery store took money for more EBT food stamps than actual food sales during the same period.

The employees of the store have taken SNAP benefits from someone who isn’t allowed to use them.

How to defend your store against a SNAP violation

Our law firm has immense experience managing SNAP violations letters. Our team of attorneys can handle your SNAP violation process in all 3 phases of a SNAP violation action.

The charging letter is the initial step taken by the USDA to remove your EBT license. The letter can come with no warning can come at any time. The violation letter will have allegations in it, but most of them will outline serious allegations, and have attached documents detailing the violations. Your response to the SNAP violation letter is due within 10 days. After you hire Spodek Law Group, we 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 feel that your store has violated the rules. If this happens, the USDA will issue another letter which outlines the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the retail store based on the accusations previously mentioned. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you don’t, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our law firm, our team the legal papers and notify the USDA appeal the decision. Our lawyers collect necessary evidence, and our team will draft the necessary appeals briefs which contains all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is critical to overturn the decision.

In the event the USDA refuses to override the legal decision, in the Administrative Review, we’ll file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. This next phase is like a normal court 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 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 limitations. For example, SNAP recipients cant buy electronic goods. If, and when, you violate the laws, you’ll probably get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can include fines and penalties. If you conduct a serious SNAP violation, then you might end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In most cases, owners of grocery stores didn’t even know SNAP violations were even happening. In many situations, it’s dishonest employees are misusing the SNAP EBT program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation appeals lawyer to make sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is presented to your 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 deliver a verdict even if 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 lawyers will challenge the findings of the USDA and fight any decision. The fines imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully chooses to impose large fines to curb violations. The USDA will typically look to see if you have a compliance policy in place. The policy has to be in writing and in effect at the time the allegations were filed.

The retailer must be able to prove the compliance policy was in existence before the allegations, and wasn’t drafted after the violation was made. The USDA will also look to see if the owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or were aware of the violation. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store that gets a 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.