In this law the following terms shall have the following meanings:

a) “Legal aid” is the free-of-charge legal service and the other services provided for in this law, for persons meeting the requirements of this law which are guaranteed and financed by the state; 

b) “Primary legal aid” is:

i) providing of information regarding the legal system of the Republic of Albania, the normative acts in force, the rights and obligations of subjects of law and the methods of enforcing and exercising these rights both in judicial and extrajudicial proceedings,

ii) the delivery of counselling,

iii) the delivery of advice on the procedures of mediation and the alternative means of dispute resolutions, 

iv) the delivery of assistance in drafting and establishing of documentation to put in motion the state administration or for requesting secondary legal aid,

v) representation before administration bodies, and

vi) the delivery of all other forms of necessary legal support not constituting secondary legal aid;

c) “Secondary legal aid” is the legal service that is offered for the compilation of the necessary legal acts for putting in motion the court, the delivery of counselling, representation and defence before the court in administrative and civil cases and in criminal cases for which is not applied the mandatory defence in accordance of the criminal procedural legislation;

ç) “Counselling” is the delivery of information on the manners and the possibilities of solution of a concrete legal matter;

d) “Primary legal aid service centre” is a specialized unit for the delivery of primary legal aid organized as ‘direct unit offering services to the public’ as per the provisions of the law on the organisation and functioning of the state administration;

dh) “Specially trained officer” is an officer, graduated from a second cycle of studies in law, as defined in the legislation in force on higher education and who has undergone a special training, and who has then been assigned with the duty to provide primary legal aid in a primary legal aid service centre; 

e) “Special training” is the initial and continuous training program approved by the Directorate on Free-of-Charge Legal Aid, for the officers that offer primary legal aid in the primary legal aid service centre.

ë) “Legal clinic” is an organizational unit of a higher education institution, organised and functioning in accordance with the provisions of the legislation in force on higher education, and that delivers primary legal aid without a profit motive, in accordance with the definitions in the statute of the higher education institution.

f) “Income” in the meaning of this law are the monthly incomes that are secured by the family from wages, economic activity, interests from bank accounts, income from immovable property. In these income will not be included economic aid/social assistance, social pension, unemployment payments, benefits of invalids according to the status of the work of war invalid, payments received from household members that care for persons with disabilities, reimbursement of expenses for energy, reimbursement for medicines and medications for those chronically sick and the hygieno-sanitary package for persons with disabilities;

g) “Household” is a set of persons, related by marriage or cohabitation or in a parent-child, in the family or custody/guardianship relationship, that are living under the same roof and jointly contributing, financially or otherwise, towards the cost of living;

gj) “Property”, in the meaning of this law, is property of any kind, movable or immovable, as well as the real property rights. Real estate used by the owner or co-owner as his primary home and property excluded from seizure according to the Civil Procedure Code, are not considered property in the meaning of this law.

h) “Exemption from court fees and costs” is a form of free-of-charge legal aid, for the exemption from payment of court fees and other court costs, by decision of the competent court, if the criteria imposed by this law are fulfilled.

i) “Court fees” is the fee in accordance with the definition provided by the legislation in force on court fees in the Republic of Albania.

j) “Court costs” are the expenses made in the framework of the judicial proceeding, necessary for adjudication in accordance with the meaning given in the procedural legislation, except for the court fee.

k) “Fee for initiating execution of the execution order” is the fee that is prepaid to the state judicial bailiff service, for the initiating execution of an executive title, in accordance with the provisions of the legislation in force