Taken to court about smear and suffered (9)
I believe the answer is:
sustained
'suffered' is the definition.
('sustain' can be a synonym of 'suffer')
'taken to court about smear' is the wordplay.
'taken to court' becomes 'sued' ('sue' can be a synonym of 'take to court').
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'smear' becomes 'stain' ('stain' can be a synonym of 'smear').
'sued' placed around 'stain' is 'SUSTAINED'.
'and' is the link.
(Other definitions for sustained that I've seen before include "Kept going, supported" , "bore" , "Steadily maintained" , "prolonged" , "Long drawn-out" .)