When Walter Henry Alderfer learned last month about the Costa Concordia shipwreck off Italy, it brought back bad memories.
In April 2007, he, his wife and his daughter were aboard the Sea Diamond cruise ship when it struck a reef off Greece and sank into the Aegean Sea. Screaming passengers fought over life preservers, Alderfer says, and his wife hurt her neck and later needed surgery. Five years later, the family is still seeking redress - and its experience may be instructive for survivors of the Concordia disaster. They turned down an offer of compensation by the owner - Cyprus-based Louis Cruises, a unit of Louis PLC – that, perhaps perversely, included a free voyage. They filed a federal lawsuit in New York but settled for $2,500 - less than his wife's medical expenses and the family's lost belongings, he says - because the tickets required them to sue in Greece. An additional...