diff --git a/lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/IndexWriter.java b/lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/IndexWriter.java
index e7e7812eeaf..2d2dae3dbee 100644
--- a/lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/IndexWriter.java
+++ b/lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/IndexWriter.java
@@ -657,17 +657,6 @@ public class IndexWriter implements Closeable {
     this.infoStream = infoStream;
   }
 
-  /**
-   * Casts current mergePolicy to LogMergePolicy, and throws
-   * an exception if the mergePolicy is not a LogMergePolicy.
-   */
-  private LogMergePolicy getLogMergePolicy() {
-    if (mergePolicy instanceof LogMergePolicy)
-      return (LogMergePolicy) mergePolicy;
-    else
-      throw new IllegalArgumentException("this method can only be called when the merge policy is the default LogMergePolicy");
-  }
-
   CodecProvider codecs;
 
   /**