At your FIRST court appearance they enter your plea, which is of course NOT GUILTY, and then you have more time to discuss with your attorney how you want to proceed, and let him or her try to meet with the DA and get the DA to agree the case is of minor consequence and should be dealt with lightly. Then you have a pre-trial hearing, which does NOT mean you are going to trial, it's just another step before a trial is needed, and at that you will go before the judge and that is when you would be offered a lighter penalty or CWOF.