It sounds like a joke, but when Stephen Gutierrez's pants caught on fire during court, no one was laughing.

The Miami defense lawyer was pleading his client's case - ironically charged with arson - when his pocket started to feel warm. That warm sensation quickly became hot and it even started singeing his pocket.

"When I checked my pocket, I noticed that the heat was coming from a small e-cigarette battery I had in my pocket. There were two or three in my pocket at the time."

Cue the liar liar pants on fire chant.

The US Fire Administration has issued some warnings about e-cigarette batteries, but says that such occurrences are rare. There were 25 reported instances from 2009 - 2014 resulting in nine injuries.

Even with the relatively low instances of fires the Transportation Department banned them from airplanes in 2016.

Gutierrez might wish that they'll be banned from court rooms too.