Jeff Cox

Jeffrey Stephen Cox, known as Jeff Cox (born February 1965), is a judge of the Louisiana Circuit Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit, based in Shreveport, Louisiana. From November 2004 until December 31, 2016, he served as one of the six judges of the 26th Judicial District Court of Bossier and Webster parishes in northwestern Louisiana. He held the Division C judgeship. He is also an instructor for the North Louisiana Criminal Justice Academy, which provides services to law enforcement officers.

Reared in Minden in Webster Parish, Cox was one of three sons of the former Dorothy Addison born 1928) and Orville D. "O. D." Cox (1927-2013) of Minden, the founder of the Hill Crest Memorial Funeral Home and Cemeteries and Hill Crest Florist in Haughton in Bossier Parish. The senior Cox also built the Hill Crest Sunrise Amphitheatre for the celebration of Easter sunrise services each year. His brothers are Philip Cox and the late Fred Cox.

Jeff Cox obtained his undergraduate degree from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, his Masters of Business Administration from Louisiana State University in Shreveport, his Juris Doctor in 1992 from the Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge, and his Legal Law Masters in Taxation from Southern Methodist University near Dallas, Texas.

Cox is married to Susan Elaine Cox (born March 1968), a native of Irving, north of Dallas. The couple has two children, Gabriell "Gabby" and Stephen Cox. He is a member of the First Baptist Church of Bossier City.

Cox was elected without opposition as a district judge in November 2004, 2008, and 2014. Prior to his judgeship, Cox specialized as a practicing attorney in wills, successions, estate planning, and elder care matters. He is a former assistant district attorney for the 26th Judicial District, headed since 2003 by DA Schuyler Marvin of Minden. He formerly served on the board of Volunteers for Youth Justice and the Caddo Council on Aging in Shreveport and Bossier City. He was active in the Pro Bono Project of the Shreveport Bar Association. He is the former Bossier district chairman for the Norwella Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Judge Cox is an instructor at the Bossier Parish Sheriff's Training Academy in Plain Dealing in northern Bossier Parish. He instructs the notary preparation course at Bossier Parish Community College.

Cox's court colleagues include Judges Jeff R. Thompson, Charles Jacobs, Mike Nerren, Parker Self, and Michael O. Craig. Cox, Nerren, Self, and Craig were all unopposed in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on November 4, 2014. Thompson also ran unopposed to succeed Judge Ford E. Stinson, Jr.; Jacobs, from Springhill, to replace the retiring John M. Robinson.

On November 8, 2016, Cox unseated the two-term Circuit Judge James Jay Caraway (born June 1953), a Democrat-turned-Republican for the Division C position on the appeals court. Cox received 58,874 votes (57 percent) to Caraway's 44,604 (43 percent). Caraway first won the position in a special election held in March 1996, when he defeated then fellow Democrat Johnny Evans.

Upon election, Cox had vowed to continue basing his decisions on the U. S. Constitution, faith and family, fair treatment of plaintiffs and defendants, Second Amendment rights, and strict interpretation of the law. In addition to Bossier and Webster, the appeal court district encompasses Bienville, Caldwell, Claiborne, Jackson, Lincoln, Union, and Winn parishes.