Deprived, be confident judge may intervene (6)
I believe the answer is:
bereft
'deprived' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'be confident judge may intervene' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'be' is found in the answer.
'judge' could be 'ref' and 'ref' is found in the answer.
A single letter 't' remains which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
(Other definitions for bereft that I've seen before include "Deprived, say of reason" , "Deprived, of reason or loved one" , "Deprived of something precious" , "Grief-stricken" , "Sad through loss or deprivation" .)