According to a report from the BBC Sport website, McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton will not attend the GBH trial of Adrian Sutil as expected, with Hamilton finding that the date for his testimony clashed with a prior commitment.
Earlier this week, a court spokeswoman in Munich confirmed that Hamilton had been called to give testimony in the Sutil case.
The German driver stands accused of assaulting Lotus co-owner Eric Lux during an incident in a Chinese nightclub last year.
Hamilton was with close friend Sutil in the nightclub, celebrating his victory in the Chinese Grand Prix hours earlier, when the incident happened.
But after Hamilton had reportedly been called to attend the trial on January 30th, his lawyer has informed the court that he will be unavailable on that date due to prior commitments with McLaren.
It is not clear what the commitments are, beyond them presumably being some sort of sponsor-pleasing PR meeting somewhere.
McLaren will launch their new 2012 challenger shortly after the trial's planned dates, on February 1st.
According to the BBC report, however, Hamilton remains "prepared to co-operate" with the court, though it is not clear whether his appearance will be rescheduled or he will be excused from attending.
The report also suggests that Hamilton has not yet been officially summoned to the court, and his contact with the court was in reaction to the initial media reports.
The trial is set to take place on January 30th and 31st in Munich.
The prosecution for Lux are calling for a year's suspended sentence for the German driver, despite Sutil protesting his innocence.
Sutil has lost his drive with Force India for the coming season, and looks set to spend the season on the sidelines.
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