A Part-Time Student Is Running the Complaint Desk for a System That Never Rules in Your Favor

The Kalamazoo County Friend of the Court has received 18 formal grievances between 2020 and 2024. The results are uniform:

  • Zero corrective actions
  • Zero personnel actions
  • 6 denied
  • 12 deemed nongrievable
  • Not a single grievance acknowledged in full or in part

A 100% denial rate across five years. And the person the state has put in charge of responding to these complaints is Gracee G. Wisniewski, a 21-year-old part-time law clerk and final-year student at Grand Valley State University who started the position six months ago.

The Father Who Pushed Back

A Kalamazoo County father recently filed a formal complaint with the Friend of the Court Bureau at the State Court Administrative Office. Rather than simply filing through local channels, he cited the FOC's own annual grievance reports submitted to the Michigan Legislature.

His argument was direct: the local grievance process has a documented 0% success rate over five years. Filing locally would be, in his words, "a meaningless formality with no realistic prospect of relief."

He requested the State Court Administrative Office take direct action, including:

  • Investigation of the local FOC's operations and compliance with statutory obligations
  • Review of the FOC's grievance process and its failure to produce any corrective outcomes
  • Intervention by SCAO to address systemic performance issues
  • Any other relief within authority under MCR 3.224 or applicable statute

The Bureau's Response: Go Back to the Same Process

The Friend of the Court Bureau responded the next day. The reply did not address the father's data. It did not acknowledge the 0% success rate. It did not respond to his request for state-level intervention.

Instead, the Bureau wrote:

"The grievance process was created by statute (MCL 552.526), and it is the correct and appropriate way to submit a complaint. The Friend of the Court Bureau cannot review complaints outside of the ones submitted through the proper channels."

The response directed him back to the same local process he had just demonstrated produces no results.

Who Is Handling These Complaints?

State records show Gracee G. Wisniewski, 21, is listed as a state worker under OpenPayrolls with a salary of $8,820. She is a part-time law clerk at the Friend of the Court Bureau and a final-year student at Grand Valley State University.

She is the person responsible for receiving, reviewing, and responding to formal complaints filed against local Friend of the Court offices across the state.

The father's complaint, which cited five years of data, Michigan court rules, and specific statutory authority, was handled entirely by this office during her tenure.

Collection Rates Falling Behind

The problems at the Kalamazoo County FOC extend beyond the grievance process.

The county's child support collection rate has consistently fallen below the state average, dropping from 69% in 2020 to 65% in 2025. The statewide average during that period ranged from 67% to 74%.

Kalamazoo County also does not maintain an active Citizen Advisory Committee, which would otherwise provide independent review and oversight of the grievance process.

A Pattern Across the State

Thousands of parents, primarily fathers, file complaints with the Friend of the Court system each year. The Kalamazoo data raises questions about whether the grievance process functions as an accountability mechanism or simply as a procedural checkpoint that produces no outcomes.

With a part-time student clerk handling responses and a five-year track record of zero corrective actions, the system appears designed to absorb complaints rather than resolve them.

The father's request for state-level intervention remains pending.