Sentence of many years cut by one in court, subject to conditions (9)
I believe the answer is:
qualified
'subject to conditions' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.
'sentence of many years cut by one in court' is the wordplay.
'sentence of many years' becomes 'life' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'cut by' indicates putting letters inside (some letters cut their way into a word).
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'court' becomes 'quad' (quad can mean a rectangular courtyard).
'life' enclosing 'i' is 'lifie'.
'lifie' placed within 'quad' is 'QUALIFIED'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for qualified that I've seen before include "Professional" , "Having credentials" , "Provided with the attributes necessary to do a job" , "guarded" , "Passed exams - with reservations" .)