Rank absence in court as a consequence (3,5)

'rank absence in court' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.

'a consequence' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'a' could be 'an' and 'an' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

'as' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?