Not necessarily, in many counties, they allow the attorney to wave the appearance of the person who's charged so that only the lawyer has to show up. Some counties require that you sign something, sign a form and the attorney can show up in your place. Other counties don't even require that so that you won't potentially have to show up at all until the very end of the case. If you don't have an attorney, yes, you're going to have to show up. If you have an attorney, usually the attorney can make it so that over those three or four court dates you don't have to be there.
