<div><p>It sounds like a joke, but when Stephen Gutierrez's pants caught on fire during court, no one was laughing.</p><p>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.</p><div><figure><amp-img src="https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/03/Lawyer-toronto-sun.jpg" title="Stephen Gutierrez" alt="Stephen Gutierrez" height="9" width="16" layout="responsive"></amp-img><figcaption class="op-vertical-center"><cite>Toronto Sun</cite></figcaption></figure></div><p>"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."</p><p>Cue the liar liar pants on fire chant.</p><p><!-- [invalid-shortcode] --></p><p>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.</p><p>Even with the relatively low instances of fires the Transportation Department banned them from airplanes in 2016.</p><p>Gutierrez might wish that they'll be banned from court rooms too.</p></div>