Lindsay Lohan Looking at Jail Time if She Doesn't Take Necklace-Theft Case to Trial (Photos)

Ted Soqui

Lohan heads to court ... again.

Photos by Ted Soqui

If Lindsay Lohan doesn't fight her grand theft case, she's looking at jail time. No way around it, Judge Keith L. Schwartz told her at LAX Superior Court Wednesday.

Lohan was it court in connection with allegations she stole a $2,500 necklace from a Venice jewelry store. She's on probation, and thin ice, for a DUI saga and subsequent mandatory rehab flubs.

Schwartz:

Ted Soqui

These pants will sell out across America soon.

"If the case settles here ... you will be going to jail, period."

We kind of like the way the judge says Ms. Low-hayn, eschewing the more regal-sounding "Lowen" pronunciation.

He gave Lohan's team time to review the evidence, which apparently includes security video of her allegedly taking the jewels.

Acting like a woman on probation who's bent on straightening out her life and driving straight, Lohan was ticketed Tuesday night for driving at a rate twice the speed limit in West Hollywood.

Ted Soqui

We plead hot mess.

(A passive-aggressive f-u, or just bad luck? Seems like every time Lohan is about to be dressed down in court she ends up in the presence of booze, coke or a badge).

If she doesn't take a District Attorney's deal -- and one is on the table (the deets weren't revealed) -- by March 10, this legal circus will go forward starting with a hearing to determine if there's enough evidence to take this thing to trial.

And it looks like, as the judge predicted, Team Lohan passed on the D.A.'s first plea bargain officer.

Schwartz said a separate hearing would be held to weigh whether the actress violated her probation by allegedly stealing the necklace.

Frankly, the judge sounds like he's made up his mind already.

"I don't want you to be a repeat offender in the system,'' Schwartz said.

She already spent time at an L.A. County women's facility, so Lohan must know by now there are no velvet ropes behind bars.

-With reporting from City News Service. Got news? Email us. Follow us on Twitter, too: @dennisjromero.