Judge having crooked ties with friend (8)
I believe the answer is:
estimate
'judge' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'crooked ties with friend' is the wordplay.
'crooked' indicates an anagram.
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'friend' becomes 'mate' (mate is a kind of friend**).
'ties' with letters rearranged gives 'esti'.
'esti'+'mate'='ESTIMATE'
'having' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for estimate that I've seen before include "Make an educated guess" , "Statement of expected cost" , "Likely amount" , "Reckon value" , "Guess the cost" .)