diff --git a/sw/source/core/unocore/unotext.cxx b/sw/source/core/unocore/unotext.cxx
index 5d9bde6d73a7..5ecc6fbf399b 100644
--- a/sw/source/core/unocore/unotext.cxx
+++ b/sw/source/core/unocore/unotext.cxx
@@ -559,7 +559,7 @@ SwXText::insertTextContent(
         pTmp = pTmp->StartOfSectionNode();
     }
     // if the document starts with a section
-    while (pOwnStartNode->IsSectionNode())
+    while (pOwnStartNode && pOwnStartNode->IsSectionNode())
     {
         pOwnStartNode = pOwnStartNode->StartOfSectionNode();
     }