New Court Order Gives Prince Andrew Oct. 29 Deadline to Respond to Giuffre Sex Abuse Case - Report

The court will also reportedly consider Andrew to have been served with the lawsuit on September 21. After numerous attempts by the lawyers of the Duke of York to delay the formal receipt of documents and the transition of the case into an active phase as long as possible, his legal team seems ready to engage in a judicial battle.

A judge in New York gave UK's Prince Andrew until October 29 to answer a federal complaint filed against him by Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre, The New York Post reported on Tuesday.

According to the report, US Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan approved a joint stipulation and order document prepared by lawyers for the Duke of York and Giuffre last week that outlined a timeline for how her case will proceed.

An initial oral argument scheduled for October 13 will reportedly be canceled. Instead, Kaplan directed that a virtual conference in the matter be convened on November 3.

Earlier, the Associated Press reported that Andrew has admitted that he has been served with a lawsuit through his counsel. Andrew's legal team had reportedly been contesting the lawsuit's admission until lawyers spoke by phone on September 21, according to court papers cited in the report.

According to the order, an agreement was signed three days later.

The complaint was filed in federal court in Manhattan in early August, but the deadlock reportedly caused Guiffre lawyer David Boies to accuse Andrew of playing a "game of a hide and seek behind palace walls."

“Ms. Giuffre believes she has already properly served Prince Andrew, and the Central Authority of the United Kingdom has accepted her request to serve him itself,” Boies reportedly stated in a September 16 court filing.

Giuffre claimed in her suit that she was forced to have sex with Andrew three times, at Epstein's Manhattan mansion, and on his secret Caribbean island after being sex trafficked by Epstein and his alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell. Giuffre also said that if she did not obey Maxwell and Epstein's commands, she "feared death or physical injury to herself."