diff --git a/src/main/java/uk/gov/hmcts/reform/finrem/caseorchestration/service/DocumentConversionService.java b/src/main/java/uk/gov/hmcts/reform/finrem/caseorchestration/service/DocumentConversionService.java
index dd72542168..c0d4be4d33 100644
--- a/src/main/java/uk/gov/hmcts/reform/finrem/caseorchestration/service/DocumentConversionService.java
+++ b/src/main/java/uk/gov/hmcts/reform/finrem/caseorchestration/service/DocumentConversionService.java
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
 
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.Optional;
 
 @Service
 @RequiredArgsConstructor
@@ -65,12 +66,14 @@ public byte[] flattenPdfDocument(byte[] document) {
 
         try {
             PDDocument doc = PDDocument.load(document);
-            PDAcroForm acroForm = doc.getDocumentCatalog().getAcroForm();
-
-            acroForm.flatten();
-            doc.save(bos);
-            doc.close();
-            return bos.toByteArray();
+            Optional<PDAcroForm> acroForm = Optional.ofNullable(doc.getDocumentCatalog().getAcroForm());
+
+            if (acroForm.isPresent()) {
+                acroForm.get().flatten();
+                doc.save(bos);
+                doc.close();
+                return bos.toByteArray();
+            }
         } catch (IOException e) {
             log.error("Unable to flatten document", e);
         }
diff --git a/src/test/java/uk/gov/hmcts/reform/finrem/caseorchestration/service/documentgenerator/DocumentConversionServiceTest.java b/src/test/java/uk/gov/hmcts/reform/finrem/caseorchestration/service/documentgenerator/DocumentConversionServiceTest.java
index 2ed76efd81..9e05b6f067 100644
--- a/src/test/java/uk/gov/hmcts/reform/finrem/caseorchestration/service/documentgenerator/DocumentConversionServiceTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/uk/gov/hmcts/reform/finrem/caseorchestration/service/documentgenerator/DocumentConversionServiceTest.java
@@ -74,6 +74,16 @@ public void flattenPdfDocument() throws IOException {
         assertThat(expectedFlatPdfBytes, is(result));
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void doNotFlattenPdfDocumentWithNoFromLayer() throws IOException {
+
+        String editedPdfFixture = "/fixtures/D81_consent_order.pdf";
+        byte[] pdfBytes = loadResource(editedPdfFixture);
+        byte[] result = documentConversionService.flattenPdfDocument(pdfBytes);
+
+        assertThat(pdfBytes, is(result));
+    }
+
     @Test
     public void flattenNonPdfDocumentHandleException() throws IOException {
 
diff --git a/src/test/resources/fixtures/D81_consent_order.pdf b/src/test/resources/fixtures/D81_consent_order.pdf
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..66fceb7928
Binary files /dev/null and b/src/test/resources/fixtures/D81_consent_order.pdf differ