Comment #: MI181
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
Well, he's gone now (maybe the Judicial Tenure Commission was breathing down his neck, maybe not) but Queen Marge still rules the Allegan swamp!

Comment #: MI150
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
You cannot even imagine how difficult it is to find a competent, QUALIFIED attorney who is willing to take on Allegan Court mostly because of Zuzich Baker and her daily vapours and unpredictable mood swings! Why did a former prosecutor (who by the way has no childrens of her own) suddenly switch tracks one day and think she was qualified to be a family court judge? What were her qualifications again? That she could tell mothers and father’s how to raise THEIR kids and resolve conflicts? Michigan s famous for it’s low judicial standards (try NONEXISTENT). Margery certainly does a fine limbo to lower the bar!

Comment #: MI141
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
I had the misfortune of being under the jurisdiction of Allegan Family Court and the EXTREME misfortune of having my case assigned to Margaret Zuzich Bakker. As I became more and more acquainted with Bakker’s bizarre courtroom antics and capricious decision makings, everyone I spoke to in Allegan County-from cops to attorneys and even some court personnel-would invariably remind me that it could be worse-I could have been assigned Cronin. I asked my attorney if Cronin really was worse than Bakker. He replied, “They’re both terrible-Cronin’s just stupider.” And there’s the Allegan Family Court in a nutshell!

Cronin retired at the beginning of the year but the lawyers still love telling stories about how these two despised each other so much they would stack chairs and tables between their chambers so they wouldn’t have to see each other coming and going. They wound up suing each other and created uquite an embarrassment for the State Supreme Court, which ended up mediating their dispute. If judges can’t behave better than this, they really should be removed from the bench.

Comment #: MI84
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
I practice all over the state, and all levels of our court system, so I have a wide basis for comparison. Judge Cronin seems like he really wants to do a good job, but is totally incapable of it. I get the impression that he has read the briefs, but that he does not understand them at all. In the end, when he doesn't get it, he seems to default to the most politically easy thing to do. He strikes me as both a coward and a very dim man.

Comment #: MI35
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
He is a great guy, but a lousy judge. He has a very poor memory, and has a habit of indulging in lengthy cross-examination of witnesses, which wastes time.