Hon. James G. Bodiford

Cobb Circuit Superior Court

TITLE: SENIOR JUDGE, SUPERIOR COURTS OF GEORGIA

JOHN MARSHALL SCHOOL OF LAW: Graduated 1979; DISTINUISHED ALUMNI HONOREE: 2010

In his thirty (30) years active on the bench, Judge Bodiford presided over several of Georgia’s highest profile cases. These cases include the death-penalty trial of Attorney Fred Tokars, the Lynn Turner “Antifreeze Case,” and the internationally covered Tri-State crematory case, where over 300 bodies were found discarded outside a local crematory.

Both the Tokars case and the Turner case were covered gavel to gavel on Court TV. In 2008, Judge Bodiford was recruited and successfully completed the trial of State of Georgia v. Brian Nichols, who is known as the “Atlanta Courthouse Killer.”

During his time as a sitting Superior Court Judge, and during his ongoing tenure as a Senior Judge, Judge Bodiford has presided over hundreds of custody cases.  In his last ten years as a mediator in and around the metro-Atlanta area, Judge Bodiford has worked closely with the local domestic bars in bringing much-needed resolution to some of the most hotly contested divorces, legitimations, modifications and contempts.

Judge Bodiford has been a frequent lecturer to lay people, attorneys and other Judges.  On behalf of the United States, he traveled to Estonia, Bosnia, and the Republic of Georgia on twelve occasions to teach the American Justice System to European judges in those countries.

Among other accolades, in 2020 Judge Bodiford was the first P. Harris Hines Jurist in Resident at the UGA School of Law and in the fall of 2018, he received the prestigious Charles L. Weltner Freedom of Information Award from the Georgia First Amendment Foundation.