pettifoggers

Noun

pettifogger (plural pettifoggers)

1. Someone who quibbles over trivia, and raises petty, annoying objections and sophistry.
   • Hence the cunning measure of appointing as ambassador some political pettifogger skilled in delays, sophisms, and misapprehensions, and dexterous in the art of baffling argument.1809, Washington Irving, chapter 39, in Knickerbocker's History of New York

   Synonyms:

   nitpicker

2. An unscrupulous or unethical lawyer, especially one of lesser skill.
   • "An inn, or a tavern . . . these are places where greasy citizens take pipe and pot, where the knavish pettifoggers of the law spunge on their most unhappy victims.1822, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 11, in The Fortunes of Nigel

   Synonyms:

   shyster