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While I am leaving the supermarket car park driving down to the bottom around and back up again towards the exit in my very small car, I approach a line of parked cars on my left. As I pass a parked BMW large car, it backs out and collides into my left side door. I continue scraping past the point of impact, then stop clear of the BMW and reverse into a empty space to deal with the driver. We exchange personal and insurance details. I immediately make a claim against his insurance policy as the guilty party. But his insurance company will not cover my damage costs because he now says I 'scraped' along side the back of his car even though he had backed out 1 metre and stopped to allow me past. That I 'apologised profusely' (as a sign of guilt) when I first spoke to him; that I had plenty of opportunity to avoid him driving up from 10 cars away; that I was driving incautiously and at speed; that I am incompetent and my responses too slow resulting in impact. He denies liability. The matter is now going to a Disputes Tribunal.

Is there a 'presumption' of his liability because he has reversed into my left hand side?

Hi there,
Based on your information, we would say that a large part of the responsibility would be on the reversing vehicle. You were entitled to be driving around the "lane" of the carpark, while the other car reversed out into the lane (line of traffic). The reversing car is often deemed at fault, because they are driving into the path of traffic and must make sure the way is clear for the whole manoeuvre. I recommend letting your insurance company handle the problem.