A contemptuous term applied to an inferior lawyer, and less commonly to members of the other professions.
1839. He has charged us with a wish to place on this committee a set of jack-legged, pettifogging lawyers.—Mr. Bynum of North Carolina, House of Repr., Jan. —: Cong. Globe, p. 127, App.
1853. They had with them a long-legged chap, a sorter jack-leg lawyer, and he advised ’em to try and get the punishment put off by peaceable means, and that would give a chance to run ’em off.—S. A. Hammett (‘Philip Paxton’), ‘A Stray Yankee in Texas,’ p. 137.
1902. The Atlanta jack-leg lawyer is akin to the Tompkins family some way.—W. N. Harben, ‘Abner Daniel,’ p. 16.
1904. I know more ’an some o’ these gillies that swallow every dose that’s give to ’em from any jack-leg preacher that comes along. I don’t want no mossback to do my thinkin’ fer me.—The same, ‘The Georgians,’ p. 69.
