Lindsay Lohan pleads no contest to avoid jail

Lindsay Lohan has avoided serving additional jail time after pleading no contest to charges of theft misdemeanor.

The actress had already been sentenced to 120 days in jail and 480 hours of community service for a parole violation stemming from a drink driving conviction in 2007, but will not face any further time behind bars for her alleged theft of a $2,500 necklace.

TMZ reports that Judge Stephanie Sautner has agreed not to increase the jail sentence on the condition that Lohan attend a course on shoplifting, as well as psychological counselling.

"I don't think the root of her problems is substance abuse," Sautner said during the hearing.

Lohan will likely avoid any actual jail time by being approved for house arrest and fitted with a monitoring device, a common alternative for non-violent offenders.

Sautner added that Lohan will serve her house arrest and community service sentences consecutively, rather than at the same time.

Despite her legal troubles, the actress recently signed on to star opposite John Travolta and Al Pacino in the mobster film Gotti: Three Generations.

Lohan will remain under formal probation until November.