What a working SLA contains
- Measurable service levels — uptime percentages, response and resolution times by severity, delivery windows — each with a defined measurement method and period; an unmeasurable service level is a decoration
- Service credits — automatic, formula-based reductions in charges when levels are missed, with a monthly cap
- Exclusions — planned maintenance, customer-caused failures, force majeure, third-party outages — the clause where suppliers quietly win back what the service levels gave
- Escalation and termination triggers — persistent failure (so many misses in so many months) converting into a right to terminate; see termination clauses
- Reporting — who measures, who reports, and the customer's audit rights
Sole remedy — the clause that changes everything
Most supplier-drafted SLAs state that service credits are the customer's sole and exclusive remedy for service failures. That converts the SLA from a floor into a ceiling: however bad the failure, the customer's recovery is a few percent off the monthly bill, and a damages claim is excluded. Customers should either resist sole-remedy wording or ensure the persistent-failure termination trigger and liability clause leave a real remedy for serious breach. Suppliers should understand that this wording, if too aggressive, invites exactly the negotiation it was meant to avoid.
SLAs inside larger contracts
An SLA is usually a schedule to a services or SaaS agreement, and the two must be drafted together: definitions must match, the credits regime must reconcile with the liability cap, and termination triggers in the schedule must connect to termination machinery in the main body. A beautifully drafted SLA bolted to a contradictory master agreement produces litigation, not service.
How our fees work
You get a fixed quote in writing before any work starts — no hourly-rate surprises and no meter running while you think. If the scope changes, the quote is revised in writing before we continue. In contentious business, a solicitor may not calculate fees or other charges as a percentage or proportion of any award or settlement. How contract solicitor fees work in Ireland →
Frequently asked questions
Are service credits enforceable in Ireland?
Properly structured credits — a genuine, proportionate adjustment to charges for reduced service — are routinely enforced. Credits so punitive they function as penalties risk challenge; see penalty clauses.
What uptime should I ask for?
Match the number to the harm: 99.9% monthly allows roughly 43 minutes of downtime a month; 99.5% allows over three and a half hours. The measurement window and exclusions move the real number more than the headline percentage does.
Our supplier keeps missing SLAs but credits are trivial. Options?
Check for a persistent-failure termination trigger, whether sole-remedy wording actually covers the failure type, and whether the misses breach the main agreement itself. This is a contract-review question with real money attached — worth a fixed-fee look before renewal locks you in again.
Talk to a solicitor who reads contracts for a living. Call Mary Molloy Solicitors today.
Whether you are drafting terms for your business, handed a contract to sign, or unsure what a clause commits you to, an early conversation costs little and prevents a lot.
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