diff --git a/cmd/soroban-rpc/internal/db/event.go b/cmd/soroban-rpc/internal/db/event.go
index 7dea9987..fb6cc78f 100644
--- a/cmd/soroban-rpc/internal/db/event.go
+++ b/cmd/soroban-rpc/internal/db/event.go
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus"
 	"github.com/stellar/go/ingest"
 	"github.com/stellar/go/support/db"
+	"github.com/stellar/go/support/errors"
 	"github.com/stellar/go/support/log"
 	"github.com/stellar/go/xdr"
 	"github.com/stellar/soroban-rpc/cmd/soroban-rpc/internal/events"
@@ -29,12 +30,21 @@ type eventHandler struct {
 	ingestMetric, countMetric prometheus.Observer
 }
 
-func (eventHandler *eventHandler) InsertEvents(lcm xdr.LedgerCloseMeta) (err error) {
+func (eventHandler *eventHandler) InsertEvents(lcm xdr.LedgerCloseMeta) error {
+	txCount := lcm.CountTransactions()
+
+	if eventHandler.stmtCache == nil {
+		return errors.New("EventWriter incorrectly initialized without stmtCache")
+	} else if txCount == 0 {
+		return nil
+	}
 
 	var txReader *ingest.LedgerTransactionReader
-	txReader, err = ingest.NewLedgerTransactionReaderFromLedgerCloseMeta(eventHandler.passphrase, lcm)
+	txReader, err := ingest.NewLedgerTransactionReaderFromLedgerCloseMeta(eventHandler.passphrase, lcm)
 	if err != nil {
-		return
+		return errors.Wrapf(err,
+			"failed to open transaction reader for ledger %d",
+			lcm.LedgerSequence())
 	}
 	defer func() {
 		closeErr := txReader.Close()
@@ -51,7 +61,7 @@ func (eventHandler *eventHandler) InsertEvents(lcm xdr.LedgerCloseMeta) (err err
 			break
 		}
 		if err != nil {
-			return
+			return err
 		}
 
 		if !tx.Result.Successful() {
diff --git a/cmd/soroban-rpc/internal/db/event_test.go b/cmd/soroban-rpc/internal/db/event_test.go
index 6cbfcca5..ebe024b5 100644
--- a/cmd/soroban-rpc/internal/db/event_test.go
+++ b/cmd/soroban-rpc/internal/db/event_test.go
@@ -173,8 +173,8 @@ func TestInsertEvents(t *testing.T) {
 		EventType        int    `db:"event_type"`
 	}
 
-	query1 := sq.Select("*").From(fmt.Sprintf("%s", eventTableName))
-	err = db.Select(ctx, &rows, query1)
+	query := sq.Select("*").From(fmt.Sprintf("%s", eventTableName))
+	err = db.Select(ctx, &rows, query)
 	assert.NoError(t, err)
 	assert.Equal(t, 10, len(rows))
 }
diff --git a/cmd/soroban-rpc/internal/ingest/mock_db_test.go b/cmd/soroban-rpc/internal/ingest/mock_db_test.go
index 6e57658d..320ec80a 100644
--- a/cmd/soroban-rpc/internal/ingest/mock_db_test.go
+++ b/cmd/soroban-rpc/internal/ingest/mock_db_test.go
@@ -36,6 +36,11 @@ type MockTx struct {
 	mock.Mock
 }
 
+func (m MockTx) EventWriter() db.EventWriter {
+	args := m.Called()
+	return args.Get(0).(db.EventWriter)
+}
+
 func (m MockTx) LedgerEntryWriter() db.LedgerEntryWriter {
 	args := m.Called()
 	return args.Get(0).(db.LedgerEntryWriter)