The arresting officer and/or a bail commissioner will assign you an initial court date. That date is called an arraignment. Again, there are a number of nuances for felony cases (folks with 2 or more prior offenses within a 10 year period, cases involving death or serious bodily injury). For purposes of this answer, I will limit my response to misdemeanor OUI cases. The arraignment is simply a date upon which you will enter a plea of guilty or not guilty. If you have an attorney, you will not be required to attend. Your attorney will be allowed to submit a written plea of not guilty. Shortly thereafter, the clerk’s office will send out a scheduling notice. The next court date will be a negotiation date, a date for the attorneys for each side to attempt to work out an agreed upon disposition of the case. An agreed upon disposition may involve a plea to the charge, a plea to a reduced charge, a deferred disposition, a filing or some other type of alternative disposition of your case. If the case cannot be resolved by a negotiated agreement, the case will be set for trial.