Traffic Ticket Appeal

What are the procedures for the hearing of an Appeal?

Here is the situation:

A young driver got pulled over for running a red light, and was so freaked out over it, he drove straight to City Hall and paid it. Mom freaked out when he got home and told him he should have consulted with someone over it. He didn't know he could fight it, so he went back to City Hall to ask for his money back and to indicate that he wanted to fight the ticket. City Hall had already processed their finances for the day and couldn't refund his money and told him he would have to file an appeal, which he did. Now the appeal is coming up and ordinarly a transcript would need to be filed but there isn't one.

What happens next?

Thank you.