I have to follow dreadful court order (9)
I believe the answer is:
directive
'order' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'i have to follow dreadful court' is the wordplay.
'i have' becomes 'ive'.
'to follow' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'dreadful' becomes 'dire' ('dire' can be a synonym of 'dreadful').
'court' becomes 'ct'.
'dire'+'ct'='direct'
'ive' after 'direct' is 'DIRECTIVE'.
(Other definitions for directive that I've seen before include "command" , "order" , "Official instruction" .)