You should not have to cut anything as it was installed without any bending. But fender pan will need to be free enough to lift it up over the lever. Now I just had to bend one these levers back after the customer had it nearly half way down to the locked position but that is probably a different problem then you have.
He or someone was man handling the lever as the idler arm was jamming due to rust, being worn out plus PTO cable was installed wrong jamming the LH brake arm under the spindle pulley.
I know it aggravating but these pans has to come loose a lot of the time just to change out drive pulleys. It is because OEMs switched from using carriage bolt to hex cap screws which now you got to get a wrench in there to hold it.