A defence lawyer who was arguing that his client’s car spontaneously combusted reportedly rushed out of a Miami courtroom on Wednesday when his trousers suddenly burst into flames.

Stephen Gutierrez, whose client is accused of arson, had just begun his closing arguments in front of a jury when smoke began billowing out his right pocket, witnesses told the Miami Herald.

Mr Gutierrez, who had been seen fiddling in his pocket, returned with a singed pocket but unharmed.

The lawyer reportedly blamed the blaze on a faulty battery in an e-cigarette, and insisted it wasn’t a staged defence demonstration gone wrong.

“It was surreal,” a witness told the newspaper.