Jody Donald Peterman

For 17 years, Stephen Delk sat on the other side of the table — defending some of the nation's largest trucking carriers and insurance companies against catastrophic injury claims. As a litigator at Hall Booth Smith (the largest insurance defense firm in Georgia) from 2011 to 2025, he built his career inside the trucking industry's legal playbook: how carriers investigate crashes, how insurers evaluate claims, and how their defense teams work to minimize payouts before a victim's attorney ever gets involved.

Today, Stephen brings that insider knowledge to Georgia families and accident victims — this time, working for them. He knows what a trucking company's defense team will argue before they argue it, because he used to be the one making those arguments. That experience shapes every case he builds: from preserving black-box data and driver logs before they disappear, to anticipating the liability defenses carriers rely on most.

Stephen's practice focuses on serious trucking and commercial vehicle accidents throughout South Georgia, along with nursing home neglect, medical malpractice, slip and falls, and other vehicle accident cases. A native of Tifton, he earned his undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Valdosta State University, where he was a student-athlete on the football team, and received his Juris Doctor from Mercer University's Walter F. George School of Law. He has served as both President and Vice-President of the Tifton Judicial Circuit Bar Association.

For 25 years, Mike Burke represented the other side. As a partner at Georgia's largest insurance defense law firm, he built his career defending two major South Georgia health systems in medical malpractice matters, along with insurance companies facing automobile and premises liability claims.

That experience now works for the people who need it most. Mike represents individuals and families across South Georgia dealing with serious injuries — including medical malpractice, nursing home neglect, automobile accidents, and premises liability cases — bringing firsthand knowledge of how hospitals, health systems, and insurers build their defense from the inside.

Mike earned his undergraduate degree from Florida State University in 1993 and his Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in 1998, where he also served on the Law Journal. After law school, he clerked for the Honorable John D. "Dickey" Crosby and the Honorable Gary McCorvey of the Tift Judicial Circuit before moving into insurance defense practice. He has lived in the Tifton–Valdosta area his whole adult life and represents clients throughout Tifton, Valdosta, and the surrounding South Georgia communities.