Category: Ask Carolyn

My computer is a mess. And I feel like I am being watched through my laptop. I am involved in a divorce. The family used my computer before my husband moved out. Now I have the laptop, and I am using the computer to communicate with my attorney. My attorney has my email address and sends legal documents through the computer. Is my ex-husband able to see these legal documents? Can I be stalked through my laptop?

My divorce is haunting me. I mean, I feel like the house is haunted. Rationally, I do not believe in ghosts, but the spirit of my ex seems to be everywhere I turn in the home where we used to live together. We lived here for 10 years. We built this home together. I took the house in our equitable distribution settlement, thinking it would be the right lifestyle decision, but it has not happened that way. I met a new male friend, and he is not excited about the concept of us living in my “ex’s old house.”

I have been with my significant other since 2007, and he has a daughter that I have thought of as my own. She was 13 when we met, and her mother basically threw her out at the age of 12. She is 26 today, and I still consider myself as her mother due to when she needed advice, money, support or anything she always called on me.

So my husband and I got married without rings because my ring wasn’t ready. My husband bought the rings out of his paycheck after we were married. I was not working. We are now going through a divorce. He still owes on the rings. He filed the divorce because I had to get an emergency order of protection on him, so he filed. Is the ring debt considered marital debt? Are the rings marital or non-marital property?

I am a grandfather with a daughter and three grandchildren under 8. My daughter is age 40. My son-in-law is a similar age. They live in another state. There is a schism with my daughter, and I haven’t seen her for about a year.