Nationwide SNAP Violation Lawyers

San Antonio Snap Violation Lawyers

If you’re a retailer who accepts EBT at your grocery store, then may have been the recipient of a a letter from the USDA. The letter is most likely a SNAP violation letter, which is claiming you violated the SNAP program. The USDA will attach a number of pages to the SNAP violation notice, which will contain records of transactions which occurred at your grocery store that the government claims is in violation of one or more categories of violations.

The first thing after you get a SNAP violation letter, you must speak to our our law firm. It’s critical you understand, you only have 10 days to respond. If you don’t respond, the government will suspend your stores ability to accept EBT payments.

About The SNAP Program

This program provides families with get food each month. The SNAP program benefits are given through an EBT card. The funds on this card are not for general use, and they can’t be used for fraudulent 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. The SNAP program is operated on a national level by the government.

The program and it’s parameters 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 occur when a store violates any of the rules below.

The retail store was involved inthe trafficking of SNAP benefits. This can mean fraudulently accepting benefits, or theft of the benefits.

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

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

The store took money for more coupons than food sales during the same period.

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

How we can help defend you against a SNAP violation notice

Spodek Law Group has immense experience handling SNAP violations letters. We can handle your SNAP Violation appeal in all 3 phases of a SNAP action.

The charging letter is the first step which is taken by the USDA USDA to take away your EBT license. This letter may come with no warning and can appear at any time. The violation letter will contain allegations, but most of them will lay out violations, have evidence attached proving the violations. You have only 10 days to respond. 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 SNAP violation letter, the USDA might still decide that a violation has occurred. If that happens, they’ll will definitely send another letter that specifically states the agencies decision to suspend or disqualify the store based on the alleged violations. You have 10 days to appeal this. If you choose not to, you’ll be unable to protest the USDA decision. Once you hire our firm, our team the appeal to notify the government we are going to appeal their decision. We’ll gather necessary evidence, and we will draft draft an appellate brief which contains all of the case law, legal evidence, etc. which is needed to change the outcome of the violations.

In the event the USDA refuses to overturn the binding decision, in the Administrative Review, we will file a Judicial review at the local Federal Court. The Judicial Appeal is like a normal 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 grocery store owners have no issues adhering to them. However, SNAP can be tricky. SNAP handles the Electronic Benefits Transfer Card, and has limitations. For example, SNAP recipients cant buy electronic goods. As a retailer, if you violate the laws, you’ll get a SNAP violation letter. Penalties of violating SNAP can result in fines, and penalties. If it’s believed you did a major violation, then you may end up with a temporary or permanent disqualification. In many situations, owners of grocery stores didn’t even know the violations were even occurring. In many situations, dishonest employees who are misusing the SNAP program. It’s helpful to speak with a SNAP violation attorney in order to ensure sure you don’t have your benefits revoked.

When a charge letter is delivered to your grocery store, you only have ten days to respond to the claims by the USDA. Failure to respond to the allegations will permanently crush your store. If you don’t respond the USDA will make a verdict even though you choose not to respond to the allegations. Without legal experience, 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 can challenge the decision of the USDA and appeal any penalties. The penalties imposed can expensive – to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars. The USDA purposefully imposes huge fines to in order to curb future violations. The USDA will look to see if you have a store compliance policy in place. The policy has to be in writing and the policy must be when the allegations were filed.

The grocery store must has to be able to prove the above mentioned policy was in existence before the allegations, and was not drafted after the violation letter. The USDA will also look to see if the owners benefited in any way from the fraud, or if the owners were aware of the fraud. Any involvement of the management can lead to disqualification.

We highly recommend any store owner that gets a letter consult with a SNAP violation attorney. Choosing not to respond 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.