Brief note from us reviewed by judge or the equivalent (12)
I believe the answer is:
commensurate
'the equivalent' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'brief note from us reviewed by judge' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'note' could be 'te' and 'te' is found in the answer.
'us' could be 'me' ('us' can mean 'mean' in some UK dialects) and 'me' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'or' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for commensurate that I've seen before include "Corresponding with" , "In proportion" , "Appropriate (to)" , "Proportionate" , "equal" .)