Five new scholarships for law students are now on offer compared to one in previous years to help with the shortage of lawyers, especially at the Office of the Attorney General.

The Minister of Justice Courts and Administration, Matamua Vasati Pulufana confirmed the new scholarships were now available for local students. 

Recently in Parliament, the Minister revealed there was only one scholarship for law students offered by the Public Service Commission during the financial year of 2020 up to 2023 to now five study opportunities. 

Matamua said the scholarships have increased to five; one sponsored by the Government of New Zealand, two from Australia and another two funded by the Government of Samoa. 

The President of the Samoa Law Society, Alex Sua recently called for more scholarships for law students as the solution to the ongoing shortage of lawyers in government office. 

It followed a recent publication from the P.S.C. circular confirming the Attorney General’s Office putting out vacancies for 26 legal positions in its office last month. 

“I think to improve the legal profession and attract more students is for our Government to seriously consider expanding its scholarship programme for individuals pursuing legal studies," said the Samoa Law Society President in a recent interview.

"This impacts the judiciary in trying to reschedule the cases and right now come across issues where which ones have to be prioritised and as you know justice delayed is justice denied.

"The apparent shortage of lawyers where there’s 26 vacant positions is the reality now and this issue is something that the Public Service Commission on the other side has to address.”

The shortage of lawyers has been greatly felt at court particularly with criminal matters being rescheduled several times because of the lack of lawyers from the A.G. to prosecute the cases. 

Another method taken by the A.G.’s office to address the shortage of lawyers at the office is by outsourcing other cases to private firms to assist in handling the matters and taking over the load.