diff --git a/error.go b/error.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6f8a753
--- /dev/null
+++ b/error.go
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+package main
+
+import (
+	"encoding/json"
+	"fmt"
+	"net/http"
+)
+
+type ErrorBody struct {
+	Error string
+}
+
+func writeHTTPError(res http.ResponseWriter, err error) {
+	res.WriteHeader(400)
+	encodedOutput, err := json.Marshal(ErrorBody{Error: err.Error()})
+	if err != nil {
+		fmt.Println("Failed to generate HTTP error: " + err.Error())
+	} else {
+		res.Write(encodedOutput)
+	}
+
+}
diff --git a/fail2rest.go b/fail2rest.go
index 7a1139f..85d6210 100644
--- a/fail2rest.go
+++ b/fail2rest.go
@@ -15,10 +15,6 @@ type Configuration struct {
 	Fail2banSocket string
 }
 
-type ErrorBody struct {
-	Error string
-}
-
 var fail2goConn *fail2go.Conn
 
 func main() {
diff --git a/global.go b/global.go
index b52f767..9138dac 100644
--- a/global.go
+++ b/global.go
@@ -8,10 +8,17 @@ import (
 )
 
 func globalStatusHandler(res http.ResponseWriter, req *http.Request, fail2goConn *fail2go.Conn) {
-	globalStatus, _ := fail2goConn.GlobalStatus()
+	globalStatus, err := fail2goConn.GlobalStatus()
 
-	encodedOutput, err := json.Marshal(globalStatus)
 	if err != nil {
+		writeHTTPError(res, err)
+		return
+	}
+	encodedOutput, err := json.Marshal(globalStatus)
+
+	if err != nil {
+		writeHTTPError(res, err)
+		return
 	}
 
 	res.Write(encodedOutput)