Lindsay Lohan has been ordered to appear in a Los Angeles court for a pre-trial hearing later this month after a not guilty plea was entered on her behalf in response to probation violation charges.

The Mean Girls star was absent for the Tuesday morning meeting regarding accusations she lied to police following a car crash last summer, and it was left up to her longtime lawyer Shawn Holley to handle the hearing herself.

However, Commissioner Jane Godfrey was quick to question Holley's representation after reports suggested she had been fired by Lohan on Monday in favour of New York-based attorney Mark Heller.

Holley insisted she was still working for the troubled actress, adding, "The representation issue will be nailed down."

A pretrial date has been scheduled for 30 January, while the trial is tentatively set for 27 February.

Godfrey revoked the actress' probation relating to her 2011 necklace theft conviction in December following accusations Lohan lied to cops after crashing her hired Porsche into a truck on the Pacific Coast Highway in California last year.

She escaped with only minor injuries and subsequently blamed a mechanical fault with her brakes for the accident, after allegedly telling police her assistant had been the one driving at the time of the incident.

She faces four charges from the car crash, including giving false information to a police officer, obstructing or resisting a police officer in the performance of his duty and reckless driving, which, if convicted, could land her in jail for over 240 days.

Lohan is also battling allegations of assault in New York, where she is accused of punching a female club-goer during a night out in November.