A recent case explores the boundaries of normal communication between divorcing spouses in the digital age. How much is too much?

Daniel Meredith, 42, has been in a divorce battle with his estranged wife, Donna, 35, in Queens, New York. He is an artist with an architectural firm and she is in marketing. The couple has three young children.

The wife complained to the court that the husband was sending her too many text messages.

The husband told the judge he sent his wife about eight texts a day on average over the past year, and she sent him about six texts a day. He cited statistics that said the average American sends and receives 94 text messages a day.

The judge didn’t buy it. She said more than 5,000 text messages in a year was beyond normal communication and amounted to harassment. She issued a temporary restraining order limiting husband to one text a day and permitting him to speak to the children 15 minutes a night on FaceTime.

The husband is opposing making the restraining order permanent.