1. In the dock: Chariot

The parents of two troubled teenagers who took their own fives are seeking unspecified damages from their favourite band - heavy metal outfit Chariot. It is alleged that the group glorify suicide and that their songs contain subliminal messages which prompted the death pact. One song, "Life is Death", features the lyrics "Do yourself in. Do it now". On the night of their deaths, the pair drank a 12-pack of beer and smoked marijuana whilst listening repeatedly to this track, before shooting themselves. In their defence, Chariot point to the teenagers’ turbulent home lives and long-standing history of drug abuse.

2. In the dock: One man (and his dog)

A pensioner who recruited a friend to drive him home after a long night's drinking has landed him in court. Whilst James Murray was well over the legal limit, having "admittedly had eight or nine beers", driver Bear McLagan was stone cold sober. This was not the problem, legally speaking. What led to him being charged with reckless driving was the fact that Mr. McLagan is completely blind. Despite being accompanied by his guide dog, it was Mr. Murray who somehow managed to provide directions on the two-mile journey from The Green Moose bar home. Nobody was injured during the trip.

3. In the dock: The Internet service provider

An eminent nuclear physicist is suing the Internet provider Smartline Internet, for allowing libellous material to be posted on their service. Professor Juan Baptista claims that three messages posted anonymously on a newsgroup site were potentially damaging to his professional reputation and that, as a result, the ISP should have removed them. Smartline claim they are not the publishers of the comments and thus not responsible in the same way as a newspaper would be for an article and that the case represents "an assault on freedom of speech".

4. In the dock: The jilted lover

A 34-year-old woman, left seething after her boyfriend left her for another woman, is in court today facing charges of breaking and entering, cruelty to animals and criminal damage. Melissa Marlins drove to her former lover's house six days after their three-month relationship had ended, kicked in his back door and then proceeded to slash his wardrobe. Shirts and trousers were left in shreds and Ms. Martins also cut the ends off all the socks in the house. Finally, she kicked her ex's prized Persian cat, Nobby, so hard it later died of internal bleeding. In her defence, Ms. Martins claims she was not in her right mind at the time.

5. In the dock: The government

The Benet people, an indigenous minority group, took the Ugandan government to court over a land dispute, which they claimed represented a gross violation of their basic human rights. The Benets are native to the Mount Elgon area in the east of the country, but were forced off their land and left destitute when the region was designated a national park. The move was intended to help boost tourism. The Benets are dependent on agriculture and argue that their displacement challenges their very existence as a tribal people.