Should facts color legal analysis?

Today's DJ features Divorcing the Message from the Messenger, in which 2/2's Justice Hoffstadt asks: "Is it possible to ignore the messenger, which in this context means the facts about the litigant pressing a claim? And if so, is it desirable to do so? In other words, does consideration of the facts add a depth and humanness to the resolution of legal questions, or does it instead lend credence to the aphorism that "bad facts make bad law"?" (There's also a great cite to 'grand theft avocado' -- P.C. sec. 487(b)(1)(A), cf. PC 487(d)(1).)

And yesterday's DJ article titled Appellate Passion profiles SoCal Appellate Specialist Jeff Ehrlich, who "has helped set precedent, but he's proudest of getting one man out of prison."

Also today, 4/3 issues a public service announcement of sorts, in this unpub'd decision here:

We do not condone the failure of [Appellant's] counsel to ensure the briefs’ compliance with the California Rules of Court. An experienced appellate attorney knows that, especially when the issues on appeal are fact-intensive, it is in the appealing party’s best interest to set forth the facts, with citations to the record, clearly and specifically. And we express our displeasure with the repeated, unfounded attacks on the integrity of the trial court and [Respondent's]counsel that permeate [Appellant's] briefs, and especially [Appellant's] opposition to the sanctions motion. However, we do not believe that sanctions under California Rules of Court, rule 8.276 are appropriate in addition to any attorney fees that may be awarded by the trial court. The motion for sanctions is denied.

(If you like this kind of thing, then you'll enjoy footnote 2 here.)
(Along these same lines, is it ok not to provide record citations to undisputed facts? Uh, no, as set forth in footnote 1, here: "The parties’ briefs represent that this fact and others are uncontested, but they ignore, wholesale, the requirement in our rules that a brief “[s]upport any reference to a matter in the record by a citation to the volume and page number . . . where the matter appears.” (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.204(a)(1)(C).) This rule admits to no exception for facts that are uncontested.")