Litigant in court protecting wild animal (8)
I believe the answer is:
claimant
'litigant' is the definition.
(I know that claimant is a type of litigant)
'court protecting wild animal' is the wordplay.
'court' becomes 'ct' (abbreviation used in road names).
'protecting' means one lot of letters goes inside another (inserted letters are held or protected).
'wild' indicates anagramming the letters.
'animal' is an anagram of 'laiman'.
'ct' enclosing 'laiman' is 'CLAIMANT'.
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for claimant that I've seen before include "Pretender" , "Litigant" , "Petitioner" , "One demanding a right or title" , "One making an assertion" .)