yep, that was my first guess. Which is when i included this: anonymous wrote : em.createQuery("update Session s SET s.sessionRate = :sessionRate WHERE s = :session").setParameter("sessionRate",null).setParameter("session",session).executeUpdate(); | | update session set session_rate_id=? where session_id=? However, the thing i was trying to point out in my last post was that there was SQL being produced on execution of the return statement, when there was no persistence logic being executed whatsoever. Any ideas as to why? View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4103958#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...