Short time without justice is risky (4)
I believe the answer is:
iffy
'risky' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'short time without justice' is the wordplay.
'short time' becomes 'jiffy' (jiffy is a kind of short time).
'without' indicates named letters should be taken away.
'justice' becomes 'j'.
'jiffy' with 'j' removed is 'IFFY'.
'is' is the link.
(Other definitions for iffy that I've seen before include "Problematic" , "not kosher" , "Full of uncertainty" , "Uncertain (colloq.)" , "Not certain, doubtful" .)