diff --git a/src/Plugin/PdfBackend/LocalServerPdfBackend.php b/src/Plugin/PdfBackend/LocalServerPdfBackend.php
index 30f889638fbbd11d881e2e3e60e348600d51f277..1a2902d24d229c18c7692191ead575c588278e0d 100644
--- a/src/Plugin/PdfBackend/LocalServerPdfBackend.php
+++ b/src/Plugin/PdfBackend/LocalServerPdfBackend.php
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ class LocalServerPdfBackend extends PdfBackendBase implements ContainerFactoryPl
 
     $json = Utils::jsonEncode($request);
 
-    $fields = [];
+    $fields_response = NULL;
 
     try {
       $fields_response = $this->httpClient->post($this->configuration['local_service_endpoint'] . '/api/v1/parse', [
@@ -106,6 +106,10 @@ class LocalServerPdfBackend extends PdfBackendBase implements ContainerFactoryPl
       }
     }
 
+    if (!$fields_response) {
+      return [];
+    }
+
     $fields = Utils::jsonDecode((string) $fields_response->getBody(), TRUE);
 
     return $fields;