This exploratory study aims to provide an understanding of the compensation litigation process with the case of Hebei Spirit Oil Spill. By reviewing daily newspaper articles issued between December 7, 2007 to June 20, 2016, this study has drawn two categories of factors that would be useful to develop a plausible explanation of the relationships between litigation and corrosive community. The first category was the contingent factor, including the size of the available compensation fund, supplementary compensation mechanisms, excessive expectation on external information, safety of compensation environment, and trust. The other was the factors intrinsic to the litigation process, including evidence collection burden, claims criteria, understanding of litigation, and satisfaction with the court decision. Implications of these findings were discussed.