GIVING ERRONEOUS GUIDANCE TO CITIZENS HAS CONSEQUENCES The man claimed that he and his partner would have had the partner’s cash benefit stopped. But the immigration authorities did not find that this claim was rendered probable. At the Ombudsman institution, we determined that it was obviously not possible today – more than three years after the telephone conversation between the man and the Immigration Service – to establish what he and his partner would actually have done if the Immigration Service had guided him correctly. But the problem had arisen from the error made by the Immigration Service. And therefore the man had to be given the benefit of the doubt – within reasonable limits. This accords with the general principles of so-called processual adverse effect when authorities commit case processing errors. If, for instance, an authority has not observed its duty to take notes on talks with a citizen, it may harm the authority if doubt arises later on as to what was actually said. BEST TO DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME As has been shown above, difficult questions may arise when authorities mistakenly give a citizen wrong advice. The aim of this article is to intensify the focus on the special principles on redress of the adverse effects of guidance errors in particular, and on who is to be given the benefit of the doubt when it comes to assessing how the citizen would actually have acted – if the authorities had given correct guidance. There are no doubt questions about redress of the adverse effects of guidance errors which have not been clarified yet. One of them is what part it should play when there are other private parties to the case with contrary interests. That kind of question will have to be solved in future practice. But one thing is certain: cases become much more difficult once things have gone wrong. It is best and cheapest for authorities to get it right from the beginning. Also when it comes to the duty of guidance. In our new Guide for Authorities (in Danish only) at www.ombudsmanden.dk, we have summarised in Overview #5 the most important questions encountered by authorities when it comes to giving guidance to citizens. 27