The $8 billion Risperdal verdict last week against Johnson & Johnson raised an increasingly common question: What convinces jurors to come back with such stratospheric awards?

The answer is not that simple. Lawyers and legal experts list a host of reasons: evolving societal norms, changes in the plaintiffs bar and the actions of defendants. Most agree that though billion-dollar verdicts have not necessarily increased in frequency, jury awards in general are getting larger.