(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa Supreme Court says the debts from all crimes should not be linked together when it comes to clearing someone’s record. The ruling involves a case where a woman paid off the debt associated with the unauthorized use of a credit card and the case was dismissed. She then sought to have the charge removed from her court record. The district court denied the request — saying she had to pay off the debt in other cases before any record could be expunged. The Iowa Supreme Court says the law was enacted to allow someone to clear the record when they had met their obligation — so the case would not later hamper them in a background check.

The court says requiring a defendant to satisfy financial obligations in cases other than the case for which expungement was sought frustrates this statutory purpose of the law. The Supreme Court reversed the district court ruling. This ruling also applied to two other similar cases.