diff --git a/logging.go b/logging.go
index 9810706..25d129a 100644
--- a/logging.go
+++ b/logging.go
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 package logging
 
 import (
+	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"log"
@@ -88,17 +89,26 @@ func (l *logStream) init(m io.Writer, s string, ll int) {
 // function to parse string representation of log level into integer - if there
 // is no match of the string, it will return 0 which maps to error only
 // logging...perhaps this could be made more explicit
-func determineLogLevel(lstr string) int {
+func determineLogLevel(lstr string) (returnVal int, err error) {
 	lstrLowerCase := strings.ToLower(lstr)
-	return logLevelStringMap[lstrLowerCase]
+	var validLogLevel bool
+	if returnVal, validLogLevel = logLevelStringMap[lstrLowerCase]; validLogLevel == false {
+		err = errors.New("Invalid Log Level")
+	}
+	return
 }
 
 // InitLogger initializes the logging system
-func InitLogger(logFile string, logLevelStr string, logToConsole bool) {
+func InitLogger(logFile string, logLevelStr string, logToConsole bool) (err error) {
 
-	LogLevel = determineLogLevel(logLevelStr)
+	if LogLevel, err = determineLogLevel(logLevelStr); err != nil {
+		return
+	}
 
-	file, err := os.OpenFile(logFile, os.O_CREATE|os.O_WRONLY|os.O_APPEND, 0666)
+	var file *os.File
+	if file, err = os.OpenFile(logFile, os.O_CREATE|os.O_WRONLY|os.O_APPEND, 0666); err != nil {
+		return
+	}
 
 	var multi io.Writer
 
@@ -118,4 +128,6 @@ func InitLogger(logFile string, logLevelStr string, logToConsole bool) {
 	Info.init(multi, "   INFO: ", INFO)
 	Warning.init(multi, "WARNING: ", WARNING)
 	Error.init(multi, "  ERROR: ", ERROR)
+
+	return
 }