Stephan Tjugum was assigned responsibility for evaluating the goodwill impairment testing process at Georgia Metals, Inc. Because Georgia Metals growth strategy was based mostly on acquisitions, the company had experience in performing annual impairment tests of goodwill. The client provided Stephan extensive information along with detailed schedules that documented managements testing approaches, and it provided him support for key assumptions made by management. Stephan reviewed the schedules in detail and tested the key calculations. While Stephans firm has a number of valuation specialists as part of its staff, Stephan decided not to request their assistance in making an independent assessment of goodwill impairment given that the clients documentation was extensive, and it would take too much time to have the firms valuation specialists complete an independent assessment.

Required :

For each of the scenarios listed above, describe the most likely judgment trap that ultimately biased the auditors decision making in the audit.