Legally, am I okay to drive if I am being charged with DUI but haven't pleaded guilty or gone to court yet?

In California if you are arrested for DUI and the police think your BAC will be .08% or more they take your driver's license away and mail it for destruction with the DMV. At the same time they issue you a PINK temporary license good for 30 days. If you call the DMV within 10 days you can get a DUI hearing which usually will extend your temporary license at least until you receive the results of that hearing which usually gets you an additional 30-45 days of driving before your license gets suspended. When the DMV suspends your license it will be a 4 month suspension that starts either after the 30 day pink temporary runs out or after you lose your DMV hearing. The first 30 days of the 4 month suspension is called the "hard suspension" by a lot of DUI laywers because this is the 30 days you cannot drive. After the first 30 days of the 4 month suspension you can get a RESTRICTED LICENSE from the DMV if you show you are enrolled in a DUI class and if you have SR-22 insurance and pay the $125 fee. Whether or not you have pled guilty or gone to court on the "CRIMINAL SIDE" of your DUI is independent of your license and your ability to drive. Eventually you may be convicted on the "CRIMINAL SIDE", by the court, after you appear, and plead guilty, and when that happens the court may cause your license to be suspended by the DMV (if it's not already still suspended as part of the 4 month suspension you already have received. If you have a restricted license at that time you will need to pay to "REINSTATE" your restricted license. If you don't have a restricted license - well you can get one after you plead out. So depending on where you are in the process is what determines if you can drive. Technically, your out of state license is not valid if your California privileges have been suspended. If the police did not know about your California license they may not have taken it away and it may have bought you more time.

You can't. If you get pulled over, you will be cited for driving on a suspended license. Even though your court case is still pending, the DMV probably suspended your license already because you didn't request a hearing within 10 days of arrest. Your out-of-state license won't help. Once you punch in your name and DOB, they will know you're not supposed to be driving.