Former partner went to involve court, as anticipated (8)
I believe the answer is:
expected
'anticipated' is the definition.
('expect' can be a synonym of 'anticipate')
'former partner went to involve court' is the wordplay.
'former partner' becomes 'ex' (an ex-partner).
'went' becomes 'peed' (both can mean urinated).
'to involve' indicates putting letters inside (inserted letters get involved).
'court' becomes 'ct' (abbreviation used in road names).
'peed' enclosing 'ct' is 'pected'.
'ex'+'pected'='EXPECTED'
'as' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for expected that I've seen before include "Awaited - required" , "Seen as likely to happen" , "Looked forward to" , "Apprehended" , "Thought of as coming" .)