Lindsay Lohan wants to stay in rehab for at least 45 days.
The troubled actress - who voluntarily began a substance abuse programme at a facility in Southern California on Monday night - is required to attend a probation violation hearing on October 22, but her legal team are planning to ask for any jail term to be deferred until she completes a full course of treatment.
A source said: "Lindsay is required to be at the hearing. She will be there. She will be escorted by at least one person from the rehab facility to make sure she doesn't stray. It's likely that a member of Lindsay's treatment team will also be called to testify. At that point, if Lindsay is making improvements, Lindsay's team would ask Judge Fox to not put her in jail at all, or defer her sentence until she is finished with her in-patient treatment.
"Lindsay is still being assessed by her treatment team but the team is saying that she should spend at least 45 days getting in-patient treatment. It's going to take her body at least 30 days to get the substances out of her system."
The 24-year-old star - who spent just 23 days of a court-ordered 90-day rehab stint at the UCLA Medical Center last month - is said to be serious about overcoming her problems and doctors think a lengthy in-patient stay will be the best course of action.
The source added to RadarOnline.com: "Her body needs to do a lot of healing, and the doctors want to treat her after the remnants of the drug use have left her body. The real work begins after that has occurred, and that is when progress begins to happen."
