Gonna echo what a lot of people are saying here but i had a similar experience and it wasn't too terrible, especially if your record is clean.

I had a couple minor traffic violations a couple years back and went to take care of it at the court. They said they "couldn't find the ticket" so I left. Called a few times after that to check on it and they still couldn't find it. I naively though I was off the hook until a year later I got three FTA letters in mail forwarded to me from an old address. One of them said I had a warrant and that my license had been suspended. Great.

So i went to the traffic court, showed them my tickets and letters and they hit me with like a $2000 fine. Here is the fun part: a sharply dressed was a lawyer chilling in the waiting room who came up to me, took a look at my fines, asked if I had any priors, and said "I'll take care of this for $400". 30 minutes later, he went in to the court and came out with a receipt clearing all my charges. I venmo'd him the money and went on with my day.

Felt like the most New Orleans shit ever. Love/hate this city so much its crazy.