Sentence of many years cut by one in court, subject to conditions (9)
I believe the answer is:
qualified
'subject to conditions' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'sentence of many years cut by one in court' is the wordplay.
'sentence of many years' becomes 'life' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'cut by' is an insertion indicator (some letters cut their way into a word).
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'court' becomes 'quad' (quad can mean a rectangular courtyard).
'life' placed around 'i' is 'lifie'.
'lifie' going within 'quad' is 'QUALIFIED'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for qualified that I've seen before include "Professional" , "Having credentials" , "Provided with the attributes necessary to do a job" , "guarded" , "Passed exams - with reservations" .)