Lexipedia

Supervisory complaint

A request to a supervisory authority to address misconduct or delay by an authority, generally distinct from an appeal on the merits.

A supervisory complaint asks a supervisory body to intervene against improper conduct, inactivity, delay, or administrative dysfunction by an authority. In the Swiss context, it is usually not an ordinary legal remedy against a judgment and does not replace an appeal to the competent court. The complainant often has no right to a specific substantive outcome, although the authority may examine whether supervision is warranted. Its usefulness lies in prompting administrative oversight, not in correcting legal errors in a binding way like an appellate decision.