LOS ANGELES: A US judge on Wednesday set a date of March 18 for perennially troubled US actor Lindsay Lohan to stand trial for allegedly lying to a policeman after a car accident.

Lohan arrived at the last minute for a pre-trial hearing in Los Angeles, California, following what her lawyer conceded was “some drama” after she initially planned to stay in New York, reportedly due to illness.

“I’m glad to see you’re feeling better,” Judge Stephanie Sautner told Lohan, who spoke only to say “Yes, your honour” when asked questions about her latest brush with the law.

Lohan was charged in November with obstructing an officer, giving false testimony and driving recklessly, after an accident in which a Porsche hit a truck in Santa Monica in June.

The 26-year-old former child star said she was not driving the car, but police later concluded she had in fact been driving the Porsche.

Lohan, who attended court in a black dress and accompanied by her mother Dina, had taken the last flight from New York late on Tuesday to attend the 8:30am hearing, according to media reports.

“I know that there was some drama concerning her attendance today,” said her lawyer Mark Heller, adding that: “She wanted to show respect to the court” by turning up.

Holler was appointed after Lohan fired Shawn Holley, her former attorney who shepherded her through numerous court hearings in recent years.

If found guilty, Lohan could go to jail for between three months and a year. That’s because at the time of the crash she was already on probation for a shoplifting conviction; she had been found guilty of robbing a necklace from a jewellry shop in 2011. In December a judge revoked her probation.

Although Lohan, who has had problems with drugs, has been in and out of court often since 2007, she has managed to stay out of prison except for 87 minutes she spent behind bars in November of that year.

She has also done community service work in a morgue but did not have to deal with dead bodies.

Although she won praise for her performance in the 2004 film Mean Girls as a teen, the former Disney star has become better known for her drug problems, legal woes and social life than for her acting.