# Lawyer, Lawyer Pants on Fire **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 10, 2017, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyer-lawyer-pants-on-fire/781870 "2017-03-10T15:28:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyer-lawyer-pants-on-fire/781870/1 "2017-03-10T15:28:55Z")
This one is just too easy, and the thread title inevitable **Lawyer’s Pants Catch On Fire During Arson Trial** [Lawyer's Pants Catch On Fire During Arson Trial | HuffPost Weird News](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lawyers-pants-catch-on-fire-arson_us_58c188ace4b0d1078ca4c6dd)? > [@](#): > > We’re not calling Miami defense lawyer Stephen Gutierrez a liar. But we can say that during a trial on Wednesday afternoon, his pants were on fire. > Gutierrez had to run out of the courtroom after his pants began to burn while he was giving closing statements in an arson case, The Miami Herald reports. The cause was apparently e-cigarette batteries in his pocket. > His client, Claudy Charles, was accused of intentionally setting his car on fire. Gutierrez was in the process of arguing that Charles’ car had actually spontaneously combusted when the lawyer’s own pants appeared to do just that. > “Shortly after beginning my argument, I noticed that my pocket began to feel hot,” Gutierrez told The Huffington Post. “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.” ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyer-lawyer-pants-on-fire/781870/2 "2017-03-10T16:06:27Z")
What’s the opposite of irony? Because the defense lawyer’s pants spontaneously\* catching on fire during his client’s arson trial is the precise opposite of ironic. \*I’m giving him benefit of the doubt, because although a spontaneous fire right in the courtroom might support a defense contention “See? Fire can arise spontaneously ANYWHERE!”, it’s pretty far to go to set your own pants on fire. If I were an attorney, nothing a client may offer me would induce me to that kind of demonstration. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyer-lawyer-pants-on-fire/781870/3 "2017-03-10T17:43:52Z")
So it was a brief where he got burnt? ---
**Author:** ![The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyer-lawyer-pants-on-fire/781870/4 "2017-03-10T17:49:57Z")
I’d have gone with a mistaken-identity defense, arguing that my client was only _partly_ Claudy. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Woodhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Miss\_Woodhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Woodhouse)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyer-lawyer-pants-on-fire/781870/5 "2017-03-10T18:37:41Z")
It really doesn’t help one’s argument to have one’s pants spontaneously burst into flame. Although, I do have to say, it does happen with cars sometimes. My husband had a Buick do that to him. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyer-lawyer-pants-on-fire/781870/6 "2017-03-10T20:48:14Z")
What was that Buick doing in your husband’s pants? ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyer-lawyer-pants-on-fire/781870/7 "2017-03-10T23:21:22Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > What was that Buick doing in your husband’s pants? Pining for the Fords? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2017, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyer-lawyer-pants-on-fire/781870/8 "2017-03-11T05:19:47Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > I’m giving him benefit of the doubt, because although a spontaneous fire right in the courtroom might support a defense contention “See? Fire can arise spontaneously ANYWHERE!”, it’s pretty far to go to set your own pants on fire. If I were an attorney, nothing a client may offer me would induce me to that kind of demonstration. You’re no Clement Vallandigham. He was defending a client who was accusing of shooting somebody during a bar brawl. Vallandigham’s defense was that the victim had accidentally shot himself during the fight. While demonstrating how this would have been possible, Vallandigham accidentally shot and killed himself. It apparently was a persuasive argument. His client was acquitted. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2017, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyer-lawyer-pants-on-fire/781870/9 "2017-03-11T06:17:13Z")
We had a judge in an Anti-Terror trial who when examining some case exhibits aka a granade took the pin out and released the lever.:smack: Lost both her hands. The accused; died.