diff --git a/src/main/java/org/scribe/model/Request.java b/src/main/java/org/scribe/model/Request.java
index 1d6b677..b1a59bc 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/scribe/model/Request.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/scribe/model/Request.java
@@ -144,22 +144,16 @@ class Request
    * Get a {@link Map} of the query string parameters.
    * 
    * @return a map containing the query string parameters
+   * @throws OAuthException if the URL is not valid
    */
   public Map<String, String> getQueryStringParams()
   {
     try
     {
       Map<String, String> params = new HashMap<String, String>();
-      String query = new URL(url).getQuery();
-      if (query != null)
-      {
-        for (String param : query.split("&"))
-        {
-          String pair[] = param.split("=");
-          params.put(pair[0], pair[1]);
-        }
-      }
-      params.putAll(querystringParams);
+      String queryString = new URL(url).getQuery();
+      params.putAll(URLUtils.queryStringToMap(queryString));
+      params.putAll(this.querystringParams);
       return params;
     }
     catch (MalformedURLException mue)
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/scribe/utils/URLUtils.java b/src/main/java/org/scribe/utils/URLUtils.java
index ffd6600..8c6f492 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/scribe/utils/URLUtils.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/scribe/utils/URLUtils.java
@@ -13,8 +13,8 @@ public class URLUtils
 {
   private static final String EMPTY_STRING = "";
   private static final String UTF_8 = "UTF-8";
-  private static final char PAIR_SEPARATOR = '=';
-  private static final char PARAM_SEPARATOR = '&';
+  private static final String PAIR_SEPARATOR = "=";
+  private static final String PARAM_SEPARATOR = "&";
   private static final char QUERY_STRING_SEPARATOR = '?';
 
   private static final String ERROR_MSG = String.format("Cannot find specified encoding: %s", UTF_8);
@@ -133,6 +133,12 @@ public class URLUtils
     }
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Concats a key-value map into a querystring-like String
+   *
+   * @param params key-value map
+   * @return querystring-like String
+   */
   public static String concatSortedPercentEncodedParams(Map<String, String> params)
   {
     StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();
@@ -144,6 +150,28 @@ public class URLUtils
     return result.toString().substring(0, result.length() - 1);
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Parses and form-urldecodes a querystring-like string into a map
+   *
+   * @param queryString querystring-like String
+   * @return a map with the form-urldecoded parameters
+   */
+  public static Map<String, String> queryStringToMap(String queryString)
+  {
+    Map<String, String> result = new HashMap<String, String>();
+    if (queryString != null && queryString.length() > 0)
+    {
+      for (String param : queryString.split(PARAM_SEPARATOR))
+      {
+        String pair[] = param.split(PAIR_SEPARATOR);
+        String key = formURLDecode(pair[0]);
+        String value = pair.length > 1 ? formURLDecode(pair[1]) : EMPTY_STRING;
+        result.put(key, value);
+      }
+    }
+    return result;
+  }
+
   private static final class EncodingRule
   {
     private final String ch;