Italian composer ahead of court ruling (7)
I believe the answer is:
verdict
'ruling' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'italian composer ahead of court' is the wordplay.
'italian composer' becomes 'verdi' (I've seen this before).
'ahead of' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (I've seen this in other clues).
'court' becomes 'ct'.
'verdi'+'ct'='VERDICT'
(Other definitions for verdict that I've seen before include "where this is delivered" , "Legal decision" , "What a jury brings in" , "Result of deliberation" , "Decision of a jury" .)