These South Floridians filed a $10 million class action lawsuit against the DMV — claim ‘unsafe conditions’ while waiting for hours. Here’s how ‘appointment scalping’ likely played a role

“We’re here to say ‘enough is enough,’” Pizzi recently told 7News and other news outlets at a press conference in Miami Lakes.

'Horrific and disgraceful' conditions

“It is nothing short of horrific and disgraceful,” Pizzi told 7News, calling out what he described as dangerous, degrading and disorganized conditions at local DMV centers.

At the heart of the lawsuit is the story of a 17-year-old girl who slept outside a Pompano Beach DMV in January to get a driver’s license appointment.

“We thought we would arrive there early, two hours before, and we get there and they laughed. They simply laughed and said ‘Oh no, you need to come back at midnight the night before,’” said her mother, Jennifer Sassone, at the news conference.

The teen and her friend ended up camping in an alley for 11 hours, exposing them to harassment and distress.

“What happened to my daughter is inhumane,” Sassone said.

Scalpers, long lines and legal action

Pizzi thinks that “appointment scalpers” — people who hold or resell DMV time slots for cash — are a big part of the problem, even though the scheme was already illegalized earlier this year, saying, “they’re being held to account to every single person they have forced to wait on 10, 12-hour long lines in unsafe conditions, in degrading and deplorable conditions, just because of their incompetence, and they are condoning and permitting corruption.”

The class action suit could open the door for potentially thousands of affected Floridians to join.

“Our hope is when people find out about this, they are going to come forward with their videos and stories,” Pizzi said at the conference.

So, what is appointment scalping?

Individuals and companies snatch up DMV appointments, often using bots, and then resell them on social media or through driving schools. According to NBC6 Miami, these appointment prices sell from $25 to $250.

The appointments are supposed to be free, but instead, this unregulated practice has hijacked access to essential public services like getting a driver's license.

A Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles spokesperson told CBS News the DMV cancels nearly 1,000 fake appointments daily across the state.