Hamilton County judges try thousands of cases per year. In an overwhelming majority of the cases

disposed, the verdict stands as rendered. However, some cases are appealed, and of those appealed,

some of the cases are reversed. Kristen DelGuzzi of the Cincinnati Enquirer newspaper conducted

a study of cases handled by Hamilton County judges over a three-year period. Shown in the table

below are the results for 182,908 cases handled (disposed) by 38 judges in Common Pleas Court,

Domestic Relations Court, and Municipal Court. Two of the judges (Dinkelacker and Hogan) did

not serve in the same court for the entire three-year period.

The purpose of the newspaper’s study was to evaluate the performance of the judges. Appeals are

often the result of mistakes made by judges, and the newspaper wanted to know which judges were

doing a good job and which were making too many mistakes. You are called in to assist in the data

analysis. Use your knowledge of probability and conditional probability to help with the ranking

of the judges. You also may be able to analyze the likelihood of appeal and reversal for cases

handled by different courts.

1. The probability of a case being appealed for each judge.

2. The probability of a case being reversed for each judge.

3. The probability of reversal given an appeal for each judge.

4. Rank the judges within each court. State the criteria you used and provide a rationale for your