Floridians file $10M class action lawsuit against the DMV — how ‘appointment scalping' likely played a role

Yahoo

13-07-2025

Fed up residents. Dangerous overnight waits. Alleged corruption. That's what attorney Michael Pizzi says Florida drivers are facing at the DMV.
Pizzi is spearheading a $10 million class action lawsuit against the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles and the Tax Collector offices in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties, claiming residents are being forced to wait in line for hours — with some even camping overnight — just to access basic DMV services.
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'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.
In an effort to shorten lineups and free up bookings, the Miami-Dade Tax Collector's new appointment scalping ordinance was passed in April 2025 with:
Fines up to $500 per offense
Up to 60 days in jail
A ban on promoting or listing DMV appointments for resale without written consent
Miami-Dade Tax Collector Dariel Fernandez is working with County Commissioner Kevin Marino Cabrera to hunt down scalpers, especially those working in driving schools.
One school was caught hoarding over 70 appointments, reselling them for over $200 each, according to 7News Miami.
Fernandez calls these practices "predatory" and now that HB 0961 has been passed, appointment scalping is a first-degree misdemeanor statewide, which gives law enforcement full authority to prosecute bad actors.
As the class action lawsuit unfolds, it shines a light on how public services are vulnerable, especially when digital systems are outdated or lack oversight.
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