In court historic charge causes apprehension (4,4)
I believe the answer is:
cold feet
'apprehension' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'in court historic charge' is the wordplay.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'court' becomes 'ct' (abbreviation used in road names).
'historic' becomes 'old' (historic can mean very old).
'charge' becomes 'fee' (fee is a kind of charge).
'old'+'fee'='oldfee'
'ct' placed around 'oldfee' is 'COLD FEET'.
'causes' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for cold feet that I've seen before include "Apprehensiveness" , "result of paddling in winter ?" , "Fear or reluctance due to chilled extremities" , "Apprehension" , "Feeling of fear - in lower extremities?" .)