diff --git a/src/scratchpad/src/org/apache/poi/hwpf/converter/AbstractWordUtils.java b/src/scratchpad/src/org/apache/poi/hwpf/converter/AbstractWordUtils.java
index 02c79665fe..710ca2453d 100644
--- a/src/scratchpad/src/org/apache/poi/hwpf/converter/AbstractWordUtils.java
+++ b/src/scratchpad/src/org/apache/poi/hwpf/converter/AbstractWordUtils.java
@@ -232,7 +232,7 @@ public class AbstractWordUtils
         final ListLevel listLevel = listTables.getLevel( listId,
                 paragraph.getIlvl() );
 
-        if ( listLevel.getNumberText() == null )
+        if ( listLevel==null || listLevel.getNumberText() == null )
             return EMPTY;
 
         StringBuffer bulletBuffer = new StringBuffer();
diff --git a/src/scratchpad/src/org/apache/poi/hwpf/usermodel/Paragraph.java b/src/scratchpad/src/org/apache/poi/hwpf/usermodel/Paragraph.java
index 11e91fa5e2..6d99465abc 100644
--- a/src/scratchpad/src/org/apache/poi/hwpf/usermodel/Paragraph.java
+++ b/src/scratchpad/src/org/apache/poi/hwpf/usermodel/Paragraph.java
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ public class Paragraph extends Range implements Cloneable {
             final ListLevel listLevel = listTables.getLevel(
                     listFormatOverride.getLsid(), properties.getIlvl() );
 
-            if ( listLevel.getGrpprlPapx() != null )
+            if ( listLevel!=null && listLevel.getGrpprlPapx() != null )
             {
                 properties = ParagraphSprmUncompressor.uncompressPAP(
                         properties, listLevel.getGrpprlPapx(), 0 );