Court punishment (8)
I believe the answer is:
sentence
'court punishment' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
This is the entire clue.
(Other definitions for sentence that I've seen before include "Punishment awarded by court, or a set of words" , "Court judgement" , "Judicial penalty" , "pronouncement from the judge" , "String of words or term in prison" .)