The District Court is the Cinderella of our judicial system, yet each year it handles around 600,000 cases, civil and criminal, ten times more than the Circuit Court. But, as this investigation reveals, inconsistency in sentencing by the Court’s 50 judges is the hallmark, and bain of the system - no small matter when what is at stake is the freedom and reputation of individual citizens. The programme exposes the way in which inconsistent sentencing undermines the fundamental principal of our democracy: equality before the law