Sentence composer before court (7)
I believe the answer is:
verdict
'sentence' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'composer before court' is the wordplay.
'composer' becomes 'verdi' (I've seen this before).
'before' says to put letters next to each other.
'court' becomes 'ct'.
'verdi'+'ct'='VERDICT'
(Other definitions for verdict that I've seen before include "Could be innocent or guilty" , "What a jury brings in" , "Legal decision" , "where this is delivered" , "Adjudication" .)