It has been a very, very long fight and it could continue to be so.

I am disappointed with the strenuous way the council has denied this case, but the judge has been absolutely clear in his ruling. In this case, he said that between 1983 and 1997 the council was extensively negligent.

The families have won their case on the issue of liability, but they still have to fight the issue of causation as individual claimants.

However, providing they can establish a direct link between the toxic waste and their birth defects then they will be entitled to substantial compensation.

Damages are very much individually driven. A young person with substantial injuries could see their damages reach seven figures. If they were so badly damaged that they could never work again, they could be looking at more than a million pounds.

This was a quite unusual case. Group actions are difficult and they are fought very hard because it is not on an individual basis — there is a lot at stake. It is for that reason that it is advisable that people are represented by people who are experienced in group cases.

Our firm did the thalidomide case, which was on a much bigger scale as it affected people worldwide.

There have been other poisoning cases, such as the Camelford water pollution that affected many people in Cornwall 20 years ago. But thalidomide was probably the last major birth defect issue until Corby.

• David Urpeth is a partner with Irwin Mitchell, a firm that represented thalidomide victims.