diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index e9f4a58..60987bf 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 0.31.4 2014-06-16
         - [feature] MatchModifyClassQuery now can extend (diewald)
+	- [bugfix] Make matchinfo a bit more robust (diewald)
 
 0.31.3 2014-06-11
         - [bugfix] Minor bugfix regarding treatment of
diff --git a/src/main/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/KorapIndex.java b/src/main/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/KorapIndex.java
index 8265541..5a04288 100644
--- a/src/main/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/KorapIndex.java
+++ b/src/main/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/KorapIndex.java
@@ -557,6 +557,11 @@
 	if (this.getVersion() != null)
 	    match.setVersion(this.getVersion());
 
+
+	if (match.getStartPos() == -1)
+	    return match;
+
+
 	// Create a filter based on the corpusID and the docID
 	BooleanQuery bool = new BooleanQuery();
 	bool.add(new TermQuery(new Term("ID",       match.getDocID())),    BooleanClause.Occur.MUST);
diff --git a/src/main/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/KorapMatch.java b/src/main/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/KorapMatch.java
index bd19155..0e81695 100644
--- a/src/main/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/KorapMatch.java
+++ b/src/main/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/KorapMatch.java
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@
 
     // Should be deprecated, but used wildly in tests!
     @JsonIgnore
-    public int startPos, endPos;
+    public int startPos, endPos = -1;
 
     @JsonIgnore
     public int potentialStartPosChar = -1,
@@ -138,18 +138,20 @@
      */
     public KorapMatch (String idString, boolean includeHighlights) {
 	MatchIdentifier id = new MatchIdentifier(idString);
-	this.setCorpusID(id.getCorpusID());
-	this.setDocID(id.getDocID());
-	this.setStartPos(id.getStartPos());
-	this.setEndPos(id.getEndPos());
+	if (id.getStartPos() > -1) {
+	    this.setCorpusID(id.getCorpusID());
+	    this.setDocID(id.getDocID());
+	    this.setStartPos(id.getStartPos());
+	    this.setEndPos(id.getEndPos());
 
-	if (includeHighlights)
-	    for (int[] pos : id.getPos()) {
-		if (pos[0] < id.getStartPos() || pos[1] > id.getEndPos())
-		    continue;
-
-		this.addHighlight(pos[0], pos[1], pos[2]);
-	    };
+	    if (includeHighlights)
+		for (int[] pos : id.getPos()) {
+		    if (pos[0] < id.getStartPos() || pos[1] > id.getEndPos())
+			continue;
+		    
+		    this.addHighlight(pos[0], pos[1], pos[2]);
+		};
+	};
     };
 
     
diff --git a/src/main/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/index/MatchIdentifier.java b/src/main/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/index/MatchIdentifier.java
index f89fd07..fcf0dc4 100644
--- a/src/main/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/index/MatchIdentifier.java
+++ b/src/main/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/index/MatchIdentifier.java
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 
 
 public class MatchIdentifier extends DocIdentifier {
-    private int startPos, endPos = 0;
+    private int startPos, endPos = -1;
 
     private ArrayList<int[]> pos = new ArrayList<>(8);