pettifogger

For nearly three years now, I’ve been fascinated by the performance art of this blustering pettifogger.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 17, 2023

“The noun pettifogger has two main senses: ‘A lawyer whose methods are petty, underhanded, or disreputable; shyster’ and ‘one given to quibbling over trifles.’

From Washington Times ● Feb. 2, 2020

The verb was actually formed from the noun "pettifogger", which was used in the 16th Century to describe those who would argue over minor details in a fee.

From BBC ● Jan. 22, 2020

The learned editor apparently has a greater future as a pettifogger than as an attorney.

From Time Magazine Archive

A more respectable-looking individual was never seen; he really looked what he was, a gentleman of the law—there was nothing of the pettifogger about him. 

From Lavengro The Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest by William Knapp

This would still the voices of those pettifoggers who will protest that Oswald was not actually proved guilty in a court of law.

From Time Magazine Archive

Quoting from Thomas Jefferson's diary reference to "soliciting pettifoggers," Joe Stamper of Antlers, Okla., urged his fellow lawyers not to "equate legal services with soap and breakfast foods."

From Time Magazine Archive

He had been trained in the school of the French Revolution—which was not carried out by unimaginative pettifoggers.

From Post-Prandial Philosophy by Grant Allen

"I leave grocers and pettifoggers to wage war with the tongue," answered the knight haughtily.

From King Eric and the Outlaws, Vol. 2 or, the Throne, the Church, and the People in the Thirteenth Century. Vol. I. by Bernhard Severin Ingemann

He was constantly surrounded on such occasions by buffoons selected, for the most part, from among the vilest pettifoggers who practiced before him.

From The History of England, from the Accession of James II — Volume 1 by Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron Macaulay