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Britney Spears was nowhere to be seen on the first day of her trial for driving without a license, a charge stemming from her decision to flee that haunted Petco parking lot where she struck a car in August 2007. With the hit-and-run allegations settled, however, and both her lawyer and the district attorney in agreement that her addled ass was behind the wheel, a jury will be left to decide Britney's fate in the bitter license battle. "A jury," you ask? Indeed: The Britney Spears License Trial actually has a jury of her peers, opening statements, potential jail time — all that criminal stuff that threatens to derail her lobby-waitress comeback before it even really began. But will she ever deign to drop in to testify in her own defense?In a word, no. At least that's the impression of her lawyer, J. Michael Flanagan, who asserted in today's opening arguments that Britney was exempt from holding a California license at the time of the collision. His client, he said, was a Louisiana resident with a valid license, home, and voter registration record in that state. Not good enough, replied Los Angeles deputy city attorney Michael Amerian, who called a DMV investigator who testified that the pop star didn't apply for a license until more than a week after the incident. So someone is lying, and if anyone can suss the truth, it's the jury of eight women and four men who were chosen this morning. And though our in-house legal analysts expect Britney to walk, the selection process portended a turbulent path to justice:

All 31 prospective jurors said they knew of Spears and her exploits. Some referenced her custody dispute with ex-husband Kevin Federline, and one man said he worried about the singer's influence on his daughters. One man who ended up on the jury told Flanagan during questioning, "I think she needs a lot of help." All the jurors who were eventually chosen indicated they could treat Spears fairly and would not hold it against her if she didn't testify or appear.

Nevertheless, the judge denied a motion to sequester the panel lest any accidental encounter with "Womanizer" irretrievably poison their objectivity. Flanagan is expected to move for a mistrial when the trial resumes Friday morning.