Do I need a lawyer to apply under 925(c)?

The Department does not require one. Nothing on its programme pages mentions attorneys at all — not to require one, not to discourage one (read October 8, 2026). The application is something a person can complete themselves.

Whether you should get one is a different question, and it depends on your record rather than on the form.

Where the form is the easy part

Filling in the application is administrative: your details, the documents, fingerprints at a participating Post Office, three character references, and a 30-day clock once you start.

Where people actually get advice

1. Working out whether a presumption applies to your conviction. The rule's lists use terms that do not mean what they sound like, and 28 CFR 107.10(b) says the Attorney General "may consider all the facts underlying the prior offense" rather than just its name. That cuts both ways, and arguing it is legal work.
2. Working out whether any part of your sentence is still running. The rule counts unpaid fines, costs and restitution as part of a sentence. People are routinely wrong about whether a balance is outstanding.
3. "Extraordinary circumstances." If a presumption applies, that phrase is the only route past it. The Department declined to give "a rigid definition" of it. Its final rule says that "certain common factors are likely to be present": "the relative seriousness of the offense, the age of the applicant at the time of the offense, the level of remorse and atonement shown for the offense, and the presence of an exceptionally long period of non-criminal conduct since the offense" (91 FR 54054, page 54060; read October 8, 2026). Making that argument is exactly what an attorney is for.
4. A previous refusal. Under 28 CFR 107.70, a refusal for most reasons creates a five-year presumption against any new application, and a refusal on a permanent ground has no time limit. DOJ says the five years come in addition to your original disability. The cost of getting an application wrong is measured in years.
5. The state question. Whether your state's remedy does anything about your federal bar. We do not answer that for anyone — see below.

Where this site stops

We publish the federal rule with its paragraph citations, the stage dates, and what a state's remedy does under state law, for each state that we have checked, each with its source and check date.

We do not tell you whether your state's remedy cures your federal bar. That turns on your own facts and on federal case law that this site did not read, and answering it for an individual would be giving legal advice. It is the single most valuable question to take to someone licensed in your state.

What we will never do

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This is a private website, not a government site. The official site is justice.gov/ffrr. Information with sources and check dates — not legal advice, and never a decision about you.