That was the message outgoing Nevada Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Rose passed on at a Clark County Bar Association luncheon Oct. 18 at the Golden Nugget. Rose, weeks from retirement, was tapped to speak on "Making the Judicial System Work" and offered a look at how the judiciary operates today and a glimpse at what it hopes to do in the future.

"It has been fun and a great experience and I'd like to report that the status of the Nevada judiciary is good or very good," Rose said, adding that considering the funding to population ratio the courts face, "very good" would be an accurate assessment.

He said the biggest challenge faced by the court system in Nevada, and especially Clark County, is the rapidly increasing need for services amid challenging budgetary times. Even with the 2007 increases in the number of judges in district courts and recently completed court facilities, the court system remains overwhelmed by the break-neck pace of growth in the state. He said those with an interest in rapid growth — builders and casino executives — have more influence with legislators than those who work in the courts. The result is that legislators consistently overlook the serious secondary impacts rigorous growth has on the community.

"The growth for the last few decades has really been crushing down on us, and that growth is going to continue," Rose said. "It seems to me that the best way to go would be to say 'let's grow slow for a little while and assess what the impacts — the secondary impacts — are.' Maybe it's too sensible. And the big players, who donate to campaigns, don't want that. They want this huge growth."

Despite those challenges, the judiciary is steadily increasing its services in an attempt to better serve the community's needs. The court system has expanded its use of senior judges in settlement conferences and drug courts and they will deployed into the family courts starting next year.

"It's really helped the judicial system and given them some help they really, really needed," he said.

The courts have also vastly expanded their services for people representing themselves in court matters. The Las Vegas self-help center, he said, has an average of 10,400 visitors each month, including 6,200 walk-ins. And about 281,000 legal forms are downloaded from the self-help center's Web site each month as well, he said. Clark County Legal Services is swamped, he said, serving about 1,000 clients a month. And Justice Nancy Becker is creating a pro-se (self-representation) training manual for court staff so they can better help people.

"Needless to say the pro se situation creates additional demands on the court system and we're trying to meet it because it's not going to go away," Rose said. "If people have contact with the court, a lot of them are going to be pro se and how we deal with them and how we can help them means a lot."

He said the anticipated continuation of the growth boom in Southern Nevada will tax the already beleaguered system and that the next group of Supreme Court justices have their work cut out for them.

"We've tried, really tried, to make justice available to all litigants, but it hasn't been easy with the growth," he said. "We need to find a way to do it smarter, do it better and get more bang for our buck."

In other news:

• The Nevada Supreme Court will hold Bar admissions ceremonies in Reno and Las Vegas next week.

The Las Vegas ceremony will be held at 4 p.m. Nov. 3 at the Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall on the UNLV campus. It will be followed at 5:30 p.m. by a reception at Cili Restaurant at the Bali Hi Golf Club (5160 S. Las Vegas Blvd.) hosted by the Clark County Bar Association.

The Reno ceremony will be held at 3:30 p.m. Nov. 1 in the Nightingale Concert Hall on the campus of the university of Nevada, Reno. It will be followed by a reception hosted by the Washoe County Bar Association at Legacy Hall on campus.

All ceremony participants must check in with the Supreme Court clerk at the hall at least 30 minutes prior to the ceremony.

• Twenty-seven Nevada court administrators and officials became nationally certified court managers after graduating Oct. 6 from the Court Management Program offered by the Institute of Court Management, the educational arm of the National Center for State Courts.

Fifteen graduates were from court systems in Washoe County and Carson City. Nine graduates were from Clark County, and three were from Nevada's rural courts.

The Clark County graduates were: Bernadette Graham, Boulder City Municipal Court senior court clerk; David Hayward, Henderson Municipal Court administrator; April Laswell, North Las Vegas Municipal Court assistant court administrator; Terri March, North Las Vegas Justice Court administrator; Debbie Miller, North Las Vegas Municipal Court administrator; Linda Morris, Henderson Justice Court administrator; Rachelle Resnick, Eighth Judicial District Court Family Law Self-Help Center; Jessica Sculthorpe, Henderson Justice Court manager; and Bill Zihlman, Henderson Municipal Court office supervisor.