About Us
Melissa Stark, RPR, CRR
Melissa Stark brings 30 years of freelance court reporting experience to the team. Born in Illinois, she moved to Wisconsin to pursue court reporting school at Concordia University, where she received her associate’s degree in court reporting in 1991. Melissa has earned the Registered Professional Reporter and Certified Realtime Reporter designations through the National Court Reporters Association.
Melissa has been a long-time member of the Wisconsin Court Reporters Association and the National Court Reporters Association. She has served as a board member for the Wisconsin Court Reporters Association. Melissa has also functioned as a court reporter for grand jury proceedings and provided CART services to deaf and hard of hearing students at UW-Milwaukee.
Currently Melissa is also an active board member on the Kai Lermer Memorial Fund. In her free time, Melissa enjoys spending time with family and friends, taking her dog on long walks, biking, boating and traveling.
Sarah Hart, RMR, CRR, CRC
Sarah brings over 24 years of experience as a freelance court reporter to Cream City Reporting. Sarah graduated Madison Area Technical College in 1997 and has been freelance reporting ever since.
Sarah is certified through the National Court Reporters Association as a Registered Professional Reporter, Registered Merit Reporter, Certified Realtime Reporter, and most recently, in 2017, earned her Certified Realtime Captioner designation. She has always had an entrepreneurial spirit and is excited to be one of the founding partners of Cream City Reporting whose mission is to provide personalized one-on-one service to the local legal community.
Sarah has extensive experience providing realtime reporting and same-day transcripts in daily copy trials. She has provided CART services for the deaf and hard of hearing in the workplace and for students attending college.
She is a 25-year member of the National Court Reporters Association and the Wisconsin Court Reporters Association. Sarah has served on the board of the Wisconsin Court Reporters Association since 2014 and is currently serving as Treasurer since 2016.
Sarah’s reporting experience covers a vast array of complex litigation depositions, arbitrations, and trials including construction defect, asbestos, medical malpractice, birth injury, patent law, and environmental law.
Notable cases:
Zwirlein v. Reliance National Indemnity Co. (multi-fatal personal injury car accident)
Wischer, et al. v. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, et al. (Miller Park Big Blue crane collapse) Milwaukee County v. Mercer, Inc. (Milwaukee County pension case)
Steven Thomas v. Clinton Mallett, et al. (City of Milwaukee lead-based paint trial)
Kriefall v. Sizzler USA, et al. (Sizzler restaurant e.coli wrongful death case and trial) Community Memorial Hospital v. GFRC, et al. (construction defect case and arbitration) Appleton Papers, Inc. v. George A. Whiting Paper Co., et al. (Fox River PCB cleanup case) Kuhnke v. Alfa Laval (asbestos exposure trial)
Cullen v. City of Milwaukee, et al. (exotic reptile seizure case)
When she isn’t busy working on transcripts, you can find her on the water or outdoors on her road bike, running, skiing, golfing (who has time to golf!?) and kayaking. Her favorite thing to do is travel with her two sons.
Tricia Trexell, RPR, CRR
Tricia Trexell was born and raised in northeast Montana and attended court reporting school in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Following graduation in 1993, she relocated to Milwaukee where she began her career as a freelance reporter working for a locally owned firm serving the legal community throughout southeast Wisconsin.
Tricia has built her freelance reporting career in a range of settings, including depositions in civil matters at the state and federal level, criminal proceedings, arbitrations, municipal and school board hearings, and others. She is a member of both the Wisconsin Court Reporters Association and the National Court Reporters Association and holds credentials as a Registered Professional Reporter and a Certified Realtime Reporter.
The highlight of her life is being a mom to her three children. She also loves to travel, spend time with family and friends, and do pretty much anything outdoors. Tricia is active in her church and enjoys volunteering at the Gathering of Southeast Wisconsin.