Kevin Hart’s Company Loses Court Bid To Keep Dispute With Former Employees Private

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has denied a request by Kevin Hart’s media company, Hartbeat, to move its ongoing legal dispute with two former employees into private arbitration.

According to court documents obtained by TMZ, Hartbeat sued former employees Eric Eddings, hired in 2022, and Lesley Gwam, hired in 2023. The actor’s company claimed the duo obtained confidential information about its podcast division while employed and then turned around and started their own podcast company with that information.

Kevin Hart claimed the duo used the information to create a pitch deck to raise millions for their new business, and his lawsuit asked for an injunction prohibiting the ex-employees from launching their podcast business.

However, the court found the agreements Eric and Lesley signed with Hartbeat had arbitration provisions, but the ex-employees made a persuasive showing that the arbitration agreements were unconscionable and could not be enforced against them. As such, the judge denied Hartbeat’s motion to move the case to private arbitration.

For their part, Eric and Lesley denied using any information they had learned at Hartbeat and pointed out that they both had prior experience in the industry before working at the company.