Better call Nick Xenophon if you want the X-factor for injury claims

The source also said the X-man was working longer hours at the firm than he had during his decade in Canberra. He was a lawyer long before he was a politician, having started the firm in 1984.

No joy for corporates

Australian companies shouldn't hold out hope that the ban on suing for defamation will be lifted anytime soon.

The NSW Attorney-General has stated his position quite firmly in these pages and Victorian AG Martin Pakula is of the same mind, saying the state government "will not support giving corporations the right to sue for defamation".

Federal AG Christian Porter stayed out, saying libel law was "essentially the province of state governments".

Still, he said he was looking forward to the report of Council of Attorneys-General on defamation law reform later this year.

PEXA plea

The Hearsay has taken an interest in electronic conveyancer PEXA in recent times. Our attention has been on NSW, but for Victorian lawyers the matter is pressing with mandatory e-conveyancing of all property transactions scheduled to begin in the state on October 1.

This week, they cited security problems as a reason to postpone and laid into PEXA, which is still the only game in town. It also said the take-up of e-conveyancing had been modest to date, with less than a third of transactions in Victoria using the exchange.

"They thought they would build it and we would come – and they built it and no one came," said Simon Libbis from the Law Institute of Victoria.

One petitioner commented: "The system is crashing, their help line is understaffed ... if the mandate is held, the possible implications for the Victorian economy could be disastrous."

High and mighty

Elsewhere in the paper is a look at how the current High Court is going about its business. One decision this week (The Queen v Falzon) raised some eyebrows for the ticking off it gave to the Victorian Court of Appeal. The High overturned that court's verdict in a drugs possession case and clipped it for doing its own thing rather than following a path set by previous cases. It said the Vics had refused "to follow those earlier decisions while purporting to observe them. That was not a course properly open to the majority and it should not be repeated."

It brought back memories of Farah v Say-Dee (which the court cited) in 2007. The admonishment of the NSW Court of Appeal in that case upset more than a few intermediate courts and set off a debate about their role. So will the Falzon decision.

Vale Clive

One of the great characters of the bar, Clive Evatt, passed on last week. He was much more than a lawyer, having also been a very successful punter and art dealer. On the racing front, Hearsay recommends the tribute from Max Presnell in The Sydney Morning Herald.