Lindsay Lohan on Thursday faced the possibility of being sent back to jail after a tumultuous 24 hours in which she was arrested in New York for assault, and charged in California with reckless driving and lying to police over a June car crash.

Lohan, 26, who has been to rehab, jail and court multiple times since a 2007 arrest for drunk driving and cocaine possession, is still on unsupervised probation in Los Angeles for a 2011 jewellery theft.

But prosecutors in Santa Monica, California, said in a statement on Thursday that the "Mean Girls" actress lied to police when she told them she was not at the wheel of her Porsche when it smashed into a truck on a busy highway in the summer.

They charged Lohan with three misdemeanour counts stemming from that collision, hours after the troubled starlet was arrested on suspicion of punching a woman in the face at a Manhattan nightclub.

Frank Mateljan of the Los Angeles City Attorney's office, which handled the jewellery case, said prosecutors were still awaiting paperwork from New York and Santa Monica to determine if they will pursue a probation violation case against Lohan.

A Los Angeles judge told Lohan in March that she must obey all rules until 2014, and advised her to stop night clubbing and focus on her work.

Lohan's publicist and attorney did not return calls for comment on Thursday.

The two incidents came during a rough week for the former "Parent Trap" child star, who was once one of the most promising young actresses in Hollywood.

Her comeback performance on Sunday as screen legend Elizabeth Taylor in the TV movie "Liz & Dick," was panned by critics and watched by a disappointingly small U.S. TV audience of 3.5 million.

In New York, Lohan was briefly arrested shortly after 4 a.m. (9:00 a.m. British time) on Thursday on a third-degree misdemeanour assault charge against a 28-year-old woman, police said. The victim suffered minor injuries, New York Police Sergeant John Buthorn said.

Source: Press Release