Dillon Moran Engages A Fool To Represent Him In Legal Appeal

Most people are aware of the proverb that “a man who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client.” I might add my own proverb: “A man who lacks a law degree and experience at the bar who attempts to file legal papers with the court has more ego than judgment.”

Saratoga Springs Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran believes that he filed papers to begin an appeal of Judge James E. Walsh’s recent decision, which barred the city from reimbursing him for his legal bills. In fact, the papers he filed appealed former Public Works Commissioner Jason Golub’s decision. Moran is so confident that he successfully appealed his own case, even though he is not a lawyer, that he posted this on Facebook:

Not So Fast

On August 7, 2025, Dillon Moran visited the County Clerk in Ballston Spa and submitted a “notice of appeal”, ostensibly to appeal the decision by Judge James E. Walsh barring the city of Saratoga Springs from covering his legal expenses. He did so pro se, which is the legal term for a person who is not an attorney and is representing themselves.

He was required to submit the notice for his appeal by August 15, 2025. This would reserve his right to appeal the lawsuit for six months.

The source of Moran’s confusion, as he is not an attorney, is that there were actually two cases decided on by Walsh. One was to prevent the city from paying the legal bills for Moran and his Deputy, Stacy Connors, and the other was to prevent the city from paying the legal bills of Jason Golub and his Executive Assistant, Brooke Van Buskirk.

Both cases were combined in the original decision by Judge Walsh, as the issues regarding whether to pay both bills were similar. The document below is from Walsh’s decision. The reader will note that it is made clear that there are two cases (I have highlighted each with a box), and each has its own unique court index number. The case in the box on top is Moran’s. The case in the second box is Golub’s

This is a detail from the top of the form.

The index number on the case he was trying to appeal is not the one assigned to his case, but Golub’s case. So, Moran was unknowingly appealing the Golub case, not his own. The result of his error was that he failed to register the notice of appeal for his own case by the August 15 deadline, so it would appear he has lost his only avenue for recovering the costs of his legal bills.

The Courts

The problem is that if this goes forward, the only potential beneficiaries would be Jason Golub and Brooke VanBuskirk. The train left the station regarding Moran and Connors on August 15. So strictly speaking, Moran did appeal on time, but not for himself, and clearly by mistake.

The victory lap he allowed himself was more than a little premature.