Hit-and-run charge against Spears dropped

Beleaguered pop star Britney Spears caught a bit of a break on Thursday, after a court commissioner dismissed her recent hit-and-run charge.

Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Susan Speer dismissed the charge after the singer's lawyer said Spears had reached a financial settlement with the woman whose parked car she hit with her own this summer.

"I spoke with the victim," lawyer Michael Flanagan, who is representing Spears, said outside the court.

"She indicated she had been fully compensated for her damages and is amenable to the civil compromise."

In early August, the paparazzi-plagued Spears wascaptured in images that showed herscraping Kim Robard-Rifkin's parked car while turning her own vehicle into a parking spot outside a pet store. After checking her owncar for damage, Spears wasseen entering the store, exiting with her purchase and departing without leaving so much as a note.

Photographers and videographers at the scene informedRobard-Rifkinwhat had happened and she subsequently filed a police report.

Spears was not required to attend Thursday's hearing, at which her lawyer also entered a not guilty plea for the singer regarding another charge: that of driving without a licence. A pretrial hearing for that charge is scheduled for Nov. 26.

The 25-year-old singer, who is set to release a new album entitled Blackout on Tuesday, has been tabloid fodder for the past year since she first filed for divorce from her ex-husband, Kevin Federline.

Most recently, she was publicly lambasted for turning in a dismal performance at the recent MTV Video Music Awards in Las Vegas and lost custody of her sons to Federline, a former backup dancer, amid accusations that she abused drugs and alcohol in front of her two toddlers. She also drove her car over the foot of a photographer for celebrity website TMZ.com, but the man declined to press charges.

Spears is scheduled to return to family court on Friday for another custody hearing.