Standing up before empty court? (5)
I believe the answer is:
erect
'standing up' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'before empty court' is the wordplay.
'before' becomes 'ere' (poetic term for 'before').
'empty' means to remove the middle letters.
'court' with its centre taken out is 'ct'.
'ere'+'ct'='ERECT'
(Other definitions for erect that I've seen before include "Rigidly upright" , "Found" , "Upright; put up" , "Upstanding" , "Assemble" .)