Lawyer Harvey Strosberg is encouraging his clients — diluted chemotherapy victims — to object if they’re outraged over the proposed $2.375-million class-action settlement his firm helped negotiate.

“They’re my clients, I love them, even though they’re angry at me,” the prominent Windsor class-action lawyer said this week, as a Dec. 7 deadline loomed for the 1,202 members of the diluted chemo lawsuit to either opt out (and sue independently) or submit a letter of objection . He said he understands the anger over the meagre size of the proposed payout, which would amount to as little as $1,500 per victim. But the evidence simply wasn’t there, he said, to prove that the diluted cancer drugs harmed them.

“If we go to trial, we’ll lose and we’ll lose badly,” Strosberg said. “We won’t get a dime.”

He acknowledged the money is “not enough.

“But it’s a great settlement because in comparison to nothing, it’s a lot better than nothing.”

Superior Court Justice Gregory Verbeem will decide Jan. 10 whether to approve the settlement, and Strosberg said the judge will take into account the letters of objection. He may decide to hear from some of the writers, who are upset not only with the $1.8-million payout to victims, but also with the $400,000 fee for lawyers.

“The judge will say it’s a reasonable fee or it’s not a reasonable fee, he can say ‘I’ll not approve the settlement,’ and then we’ll be back to square one,” Strosberg said. “That’s his job.”

The class-action members, including 290 adult cancer patients from Windsor, were administered chemo that was mistakenly diluted so they received seven to 10 per cent less drugs than prescribed. An expert hired by the Ontario government concluded that level of dilution didn’t cause the patients harm — that the cancer deaths, including the 71 deaths in Windsor so far, would have happened anyway.

“We started this action and the science, it dictated the result, we’re not magicians,” Strosberg said. “We had to get an expert saying that the reduction in the treatment at 10 per cent caused people to die or people getting sicker and we couldn’t do that. The evidence was not there.”

He said the anxiety and fear people suffered isn’t compensable, unless it gets to the point where they’re diagnosed with a psychiatric condition. In such a case, the person should probably opt out of the class action and pursue an individual lawsuit, he suggested.

Responding to criticism that the lawyers didn’t listen to people’s stories, he said they heard many stories from many class members, but didn’t hear from everyone. “It’s counter productive for us to get everyone’s story,” he said.

The lawsuit alleges negligence by Mezentco Solutions Inc., better known as Marchese Hospital Solutions, the drug firm that supplied several hospitals in Ontario and New Brunswick — including Windsor Regional Hospital — with a premixed intravenous chemotherapy treatment. The hospitals along with Medbuy, a consortium set up by hospitals to buy products in higher volumes, were added to the lawsuit recently.

If the settlement is approved, Medbuy, on behalf of itself and the hospitals, will together pay half the settlement, with Mezentco paying the other half. Strosberg said insurance companies will cover the costs.

“People are angry and upset and rightly so, I understand. It’s easier to be angry with your lawyer when your lawyer says we’ll lose.”