Cutting last of remarks before trial (8)
I believe the answer is:
shearing
'cutting' is the definition.
(shearing is a kind of cutting)
'last of remarks before trial' is the wordplay.
'last of remarks' becomes 's' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'before' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'trial' becomes 'hearing' (I've seen this before).
's'+'hearing'='SHEARING'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for shearing that I've seen before include "Removing wool from sheep" , "Breaking off due to strain" , "George - - (jazz pianist)" , "Removing sheep's wool" , "George, the blind pianist" .)