diff --git a/netquery/orm/encoder.go b/netquery/orm/encoder.go
index 0b60f6ca..0bcea756 100644
--- a/netquery/orm/encoder.go
+++ b/netquery/orm/encoder.go
@@ -106,8 +106,7 @@ func encodeBasic() EncodeFunc {
 				if !col.Nullable {
 					// we need to set the zero value here since the column
 					// is not marked as nullable
-					//return reflect.New(valType).Elem().Interface(), true, nil
-					panic("nil pointer for not-null field")
+					return reflect.New(valType).Elem().Interface(), true, nil
 				}
 
 				return nil, true, nil
diff --git a/netquery/query.go b/netquery/query.go
index 2fdbf38f..6febf0b6 100644
--- a/netquery/query.go
+++ b/netquery/query.go
@@ -38,10 +38,10 @@ type (
 	Selects []Select
 
 	QueryRequestPayload struct {
-		Select  Selects   `json:"select"`
-		Query   Query     `json:"query"`
-		OrderBy []OrderBy `json:"orderBy"`
-		GroupBy []string  `json:"groupBy"`
+		Select  Selects  `json:"select"`
+		Query   Query    `json:"query"`
+		OrderBy OrderBys `json:"orderBy"`
+		GroupBy []string `json:"groupBy"`
 
 		selectedFields    []string
 		whitelistedFields []string