judgment call

judgment call

1. A subjective decision made based on one's own experience or viewpoint. Because of the impending snowstorm, it was a judgment call whether I should attempt driving to work.
2. In sports, a decision made by a game official based on what they have seen take place. The decision to issue the team a penalty was definitely a judgment call by the referee.
See also: call, judgment
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • speak from experience
  • IMHO
  • IMO
  • in my humble opinion
  • take (something) on board
  • take on board
  • take something on board
  • gut factor
  • in opinion
  • in (one's) opinion
References in periodicals archive
He writes about a situation where it was suggested that a traveling violation (a judgment call) could have been whistled on Keven Garnett to "even things out" after a bad call on the other end of the floor (Donaghy 2009).
"It was a down the line, 50-50 judgment call. It can be debated and second guessed, but the referees' judgment cannot be faulted under the circumstances."
Students are exposed to a large body of information about which they must present judgment call in a succinct, well-organized manner.
It may take several episodes for Martha Stewart to make her judgment call on the wannabes who will fill her televised boardroom on "Martha Stewart: The Apprentice," which made its debut last month.
Although various criteria have been published, in practice this is a judgment call, and we suspect that physicians vary considerably in use of antimicrobial agents for skin infections.
We've got the 8-K.'" If the company elected to disgorge all these details in a filing, he adds, "someone must have had to make a judgment call" to do so, weighing the obligation to disclosure against the potential harm to shareholders.
First, keep the file lean: If you decide you must keep all your old e-mails and their attachments for years and years, that's your judgment call, but recognize that such a strategy means the file will grow to an enormous size.
There are numerous tables and formulas to assist us in this process, but in the end, the CPA must make a judgment call about what would be considered by the "average Joe" to be misleading in a set of financial statement.
This is a fine-line judgment call, and we recognized that in every case nothing substitutes for proper supervision.
It's a judgment call, but most newsletter marketers have found that sending "a sample issue and an order form" isn't enough.
Whether that constitutes a "crisis" is a judgment call. Here's the real thing: If the old ladies from Palm Beach who were screaming on MSNBC last night are in fact incapable of reading a ballot properly, they are definitely too infirm to be driving to the polls or anywhere else in the Sunshine State.
Determining appropriateness of self-administration is a nursing process which requires a "judgment call" based on the nurse's education and experience in caring for the geriatric population.
She is right to point out that deconstruction entered architecture in the '80s in a way that reinforced rather than destabilized gender hierarchies, but her sweeping judgment call overlooks deconstructive methods that have been so central to feminist practices, evident in nearly every contribution to The Architect.
Hence, the examining pathologist must make a judgment call. The pathologist needs three things to make an assessment - an autopsy, a toxicological analysis of body fluids, and a detailed history of the events surrounding the subject's death.(5)
Obviously, it's a judgment call that depends on the people you're managing and the situation.