Courtesies heard in court (5,7)

I believe the answer is:

civil actions

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'courtesies' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are plural nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?

'heard in court' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'court' could be 'ct' (abbreviation used in road names) and 'ct' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in The Globe and Mail.

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