<human>: Summarize the given text in a few sentences.

I got pulled over on January 20th, 2015 at 3:14 am for speeding at 74/55. The issuing officer was very quick, and our interaction was over in under 2 minutes, ending in him driving away before I did (yes, I know that's not procedure, but I'm not worried about that.) The court date on the ticket was for February in the 20th date area (vague for somewhat anonymity). I followed the instructions on the ticket to pay the fine online. My name and ticket never appeared online. I called the issuaing station twice. Both times I got a robot. Both times I tried to enter info to find out about my ticket. Both times drew blanks. I showed the online place to pay to my teacher. He was a cop in the county I received the ticket from for 28 years. He said I was in the clear and there must have been some clerical error and my ticket was lost. That was February 1st. Come the date of the hearing, I remember about the ticket. "Oh, shoot. I forgot about it. I should be fine, though. It never appeared online. Let me check, just to be sure." BAM Right at the top, "[my name] Tried in absentia" It was filed on February 3rd.

Is there any chance of me winning an appeal if I choose to file one because of how long it took to file the ticket? This my first ticket of any kind, so I don't like having "failure to appear" anywhere on my conscience. Also, I'm hella poor, so I'll have to pick up extra shifts to pay for all the costs.
<bot>: Sped, got ticket, ticket didn't appear on line for loooong time, right up until the hearing, tried in absentia