diff --git a/oaipmh-core/src/main/java/info/textgrid/middleware/OAIPMHImpl.java b/oaipmh-core/src/main/java/info/textgrid/middleware/OAIPMHImpl.java
index bcce4e4b3a02b70c1dea1376a95d16e5eb3b1f2b..9fac07e2066b67d0c27dd983acf45f03c0c24d6c 100644
--- a/oaipmh-core/src/main/java/info/textgrid/middleware/OAIPMHImpl.java
+++ b/oaipmh-core/src/main/java/info/textgrid/middleware/OAIPMHImpl.java
@@ -473,19 +473,19 @@ public class OAIPMHImpl implements OAIPMHProducer {
 
     VerbType verbParam = null;
 
-    if (verb.equals("Identify")) {
+    if (verb!=null && verb.equals("Identify")) {
       verbParam = VerbType.IDENTIFY;
-    } else if (verb.equals("ListMetadataFormats")) {
+    } else if (verb!=null && verb.equals("ListMetadataFormats")) {
       verbParam = VerbType.LIST_METADATA_FORMATS;
-    } else if (verb.equals("ListSets")) {
+    } else if (verb!=null && verb.equals("ListSets")) {
       verbParam = VerbType.LIST_SETS;
-    } else if (verb.equals("ListIdentifiers")) {
+    } else if (verb!=null && verb.equals("ListIdentifiers")) {
       verbParam = VerbType.LIST_IDENTIFIERS;
-    } else if (verb.equals("ListRecords")) {
+    } else if (verb!=null && verb.equals("ListRecords")) {
       verbParam = VerbType.LIST_RECORDS;
-    } else if (verb.equals("GetRecord")) {
+    } else if (verb!=null && verb.equals("GetRecord")) {
       verbParam = VerbType.GET_RECORD;
-    }else if (verb.length()>0){
+    }else if (verb!=null && verb.length()>0){
     	System.out.println("VERB: " + verb);
       this.error.setError(TGConstants.OAI_VERB_ERROR, "Illegal OAI verb");
     }
diff --git a/oaipmh-core/src/test/java/info/textgrid/middleware/OaiPmhTest.java b/oaipmh-core/src/test/java/info/textgrid/middleware/OaiPmhTest.java
index 927f9793c11c720ab4e368a1ff882ce1770770ba..a037a249346c761dde5d9ae8372c435661dff0c7 100644
--- a/oaipmh-core/src/test/java/info/textgrid/middleware/OaiPmhTest.java
+++ b/oaipmh-core/src/test/java/info/textgrid/middleware/OaiPmhTest.java
@@ -297,7 +297,7 @@ public class OaiPmhTest {
   public void testMissingVerbArgument() throws ParseException {
     System.out
         .println("Test for request with missing verb argument");
-    String p = this.request.getRequest("junk", "", "", "", "", "", "");
+    String p = this.request.getRequest("", "", "", "", "", "", "");
     System.out.println(p);
     System.out.println("-----------------------------------\n");
   }