As we all now know, News International last month settled 37 of the civil claims brought against News Group Newspapers (NGN), the publisher of the now defunct News of the World (NoW). The total declared damages (not including costs) was £645,000, although the actual figure is certain to be higher as a number of people have not revealed the details of their settlements.

These follow a number of earlier high-profile settlements with celebrities such as Sienna Miller, Andy Gray and Kelly Hoppen.

In October, Milly Dowler’s family accepted £2m in compensation over revelations that their daughter’s phone was hacked by the NoW.

What is stunning about last month’s High Court proceedings is the sheer breadth and impact of hacking on its victims. It seems, by all accounts, to have been a systemic approach to doing journalism at the newspaper over a long period.

In June 2008, after the convictions of Glenn Mulcaire and Clive Goodman in 2007, NGN settled, on confidential terms, a number of civil claims for breach of privacy, with large sums being paid to Gordon Taylor and Max Clifford.

The NoW said at the time: ‘From our own investigation, but more importantly that of the police, we can state with confidence that, apart from the matters referred to above, there is not and never has been evidence to support allegations that News of the World journalists have accessed the voicemails of any individual.’

The Press Complaints Commission also investigated and concluded that phone hacking was a minority activity, confined to one rogue reporter, and that the practice had been thoroughly investigated and stamped out. Continuing the legal paper trail, in 2009 a group of claimants issued proceedings against NGN. In early 2010, applications for disclosure were made in the case of Sienna Miller, forcing NGN to reveal evidence, which referred to another senior journalist on the NoW. The cat was out of the bag.

In April 2011, Mr Justice Vos - who presided at last month­’s hearing - decided that all the claims should be heard together with certain lead claims being treated as test cases. NGN continued to defend almost all the claims. By October 2011, more than 60 claims had been issued and 12 firms of solicitors were working together as a coordinated group.

This group obtained a number of crucial disclosure orders from the court. As a result, documents relating to the nature and scale of the alleged conspiracy, cover-up and destruction of evidence (including email archives) by NGN came to light. Last month’s announcements have been carefully worded. NGN agreed to compensation being assessed ‘as if’ senior employees and directors of NGN knew about the wrongdoing and sought to conceal it by deliberately deceiving investigators and destroying evidence. NGN made no formal admissions of guilt.

The sums paid are higher than the usual range of compensation payments for misuse of private information, reflecting the aggravating features in these cases and the strong public revulsion they engendered. The statements were made by NGN, as the first defendant, and not by Mulcaire, who has said that he was not involved in agreeing to these statements. While this might be the end for a considerable number of the victims, it is in reality only the tip of the iceberg. While the High Court was told that a number of other victims are also close to settling, some, including singer Charlotte Church, Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes and sports agent Sky Andrew are still intending to pursue their actions to trial, due to start on 13 February.

The trial is expected to give guidance on damages for current and future lawsuits and out-of-court settlements. The ongoing police investigations will continue. The Leveson Inquiry, currently engaged in an analysis of the culture, practices and ethics of the media, still has to look at the relationship between the press and the police, and the press and politicians.

What Leveson has heard to date has turned the heat up on demands for reform of the PCC, not least when it comes to policing the conduct of journalists. There is an emerging consensus for reform, with a reshaped PCC, independent of the press and government, and recognised by statute. The idea of the reformed body acting as a tribunal to adjudicate in the first instance on defamation and privacy claims is also gaining ground, and has been floated by the commission’s new chairman, Lord Hunt of Wirral.

There is, indeed, much more of this story to come.

Gill Phillips is director of editorial legal services at Guardian News & Media Ltd