NEWS ‘ “without comment”
High Court in London accepts request from Virginia Giuffre’s lawyers to notify Prince Andrew about sex assault case By Rory Tingle, Home Affairs Correspondent Mailonline Wednesday, Sep 15th 2021
English judges accepted a request by Ms Giuffre’s legal team to formally contact Andrew about the civil case
Major development as it paves the way for the Royal to be served legal papers and have to provide evidence
Ms Giuffre is suing the Royal for allegedly sexually assaulting her after she was ‘trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein’
The Queen’s son has always vehemently denied the allegations and has not been charged with any crime
The High Court today agreed to formally notify Prince Andrew about Virginia Giuffre’s bombshell sex assault claim against him – paving the way for him to have to provide evidence under oath.
In a major development, English judges accepted a request by Ms Giuffre’s legal team to formally contact Andrew about the civil proceedings launched in America, after first rejecting the request, citing a technicality.
For one person to sue another, the claimant has to formally present legal papers to the other party to notify them they are being sued – a process known as a service of proceedings.
Last week, Giuffre’s legal team said it had tried to serve papers on the Queen’s son by leaving the documents with a police officer at his home in southern England.
Despite Andrew being represented in court, his team have argued he has not yet been properly served so the case cannot progress.
In response, Ms Giuffre’s legal team used the Hague Service Convention, a treaty governing requests between nations for evidence in civil cases, to ask the High Court to formally notify Andrew about her action.
After earlier highlighting an issue with the application, the High Court later announced it had been accepted after judges received further evidence.
‘The lawyers acting for Ms Giuffre have now provided further information to the High Court, and the High Court has accepted the request for service under the Hague Service Convention,’ it said in a statement.
‘The legal process has not yet been served but the High Court will now take steps to serve under the convention, unless service is arranged by agreement between the parties.’
The question about whether Andrew had been properly notified about the case was a major topic at Monday’s pre-trial hearing at the US district court for the southern district of New York.
The Duke’s attorney, Andrew B Brettler, said their legal team had ‘significant concerns’ about the lawsuit, and that Ms Giuffre had previously entered into a ‘settlement agreement’ that would nullify her case.
Mr Brettler said during the hearing, held via telephone conference, the duke’s team contested ‘the validity of service to date’, adding he has not been properly served under either UK or international law.
David Boies, representing Ms Giuffre, said that the complaint had been ‘delivered to the last known address of the defendant’, he added that the documents had also been sent ‘by Royal Mail’.
But it appears Mr Boies and his colleagues are trying another course by making the request to the High Court.
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