About
Richard D. Schneider
The Honourable Mr. Justice Richard D. Schneider, BSc, MA, PhD, LLB, LLM, CPsych, is a Justice of the Ontario Court of Justice, Deputy Judge of the Territorial Court of Yukon, Chair of the Ontario Review Board, and Alternate Chair of the Nunavut Review Board. He was previously a criminal defence lawyer and certified clinical psychologist. He was counsel to the Ontario Review Board from 1994 to 2000 and was certified by the Law Society of Upper Canada as a specialist in criminal litigation. Justice Schneider is also an Adjunct Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto; a “Specially Appointed Researcher” at the China University of Political Science and Law Criminal Psychology Research Centre. He was named Honorary President of the Canadian Psychological Association in 2002. Justice Schneider’s private practice was generally limited to the representation of mentally disordered accused, and a great deal of his time has been spent presiding at the Mental Health Court in Toronto. His major research interests are competency and criminal responsibility, and he has published extensively in the area of mental disorder and the law. Recent books include Mental Health Courts: Decriminalizing the Mentally Ill (2007, with H. Bloom & M. Heerema); Annotated Ontario Mental Health Statutes, 4th ed (2007); The Lunatic and the Lords (2009); Law and Mental Disorder: A Comprehensive and Practical Approach (2013, with H. Bloom); Mental Disorder and the Law: A Primer for Legal and Mental Health Professionals, 2d ed (2017, with H. Bloom); Fitness to Stand Trial: Fairness First and Foremost (2018, with H. Bloom); and The Death of a Butterfly: Mental Health Court Diaries (2019) (all published by Irwin Law/Delve Books).