Orders from dreadful court system's leader (7)
I believe the answer is:
directs
'orders' is the definition.
(directing is a kind of ordering)
'dreadful court system's leader' is the wordplay.
'dreadful' becomes 'dire' (synonyms).
'court' becomes 'ct' (abbreviation used in road names).
'leader' indicates taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'systems' is 's'.
'dire'+'ct'+'s'='DIRECTS'
'from' is the link.
(Other definitions for directs that I've seen before include "Guides, actors say" , "Controls film" , "Manages" , "Administers" , "Orders" .)