Earl against knight with legal action coming next (7)

I believe the answer is:

ensuing

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'next' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)

'earl against knight with legal action' is the wordplay.
'earl' becomes 'e'.
'against' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'knight' becomes 'n' (chess abbreviation).
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'legal action' becomes 'suing' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'e'+'n'+'suing'='ENSUING'

'coming' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for ensuing that I've seen before include "Following as a result" , "Happening afterwards" , "Resulting" , "This is coming after" , "Immediately following" .)

I've seen this clue in The Everyman puzzle in The Observer.

Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.