No citations were issued in my case, as far as I know, but it is obvious that the other driver was at fault- yes, it was an accident, but it was an accident that he caused due to his negligence. He had a stop sign (along with a big neon sign under the stop sign that stated "CROSS TRAFFIC DOES NOT STOP" and I did not. Nobody was there to see if he stopped, he says he did, but I doubt that, given the amount of space between his vehicle and the one in front of him that crossed me safely. I would say this was a moderate accident. My truck is in better shape than the vehicle that did not yield to me. I hit the rear drivers side, and his rear passenger tire was no longer attached to his car. He had to be towed away. My truck will look the way it did before the accident, but it no longer has a "clean" carfax, right? That's worth something.
I don't mean to sound too defensive here, but I don't think I'm being unreasonable with my request. And I've been on the other side of this, too, when I was younger, I was at fault in an accident, and the other driver tried to take my insurance company for injuries that they had before the accident. I'm not trying to fool anyone or get away with anything here.
Regarding the other accident that I was in that I referred to, which I did deem minor: I didn't ask for a settlement, they just offered it without us asking. DH was surprised at first, but after discussing it, I think it was quite reasonable for them to offer it. Once it was clear what we were giving up for the settlement money, which was the inability to claim any other damages in the future, I felt it was a reasonable trade. We felt fine, but the truth is other big things were on our mind, which I believe had the potential to mask the feeling of minor soft tissue injuries. (We were rear ended on the way to a birth center to have our first child when that accident happened. I was in labor, which completely stopped in its tracks when we were hit. So our main objective right after the accident was to get to the birth center and make sure our baby was okay. And she was, she was perfect. But it was scary.) IDK if the insurance agent thought this was an unusual situation and thus offered something, or if it's a normal thing...