Cost awards when unsuccessful party will not be able to pay immediately

Hi, I have a question that seems like it should be a common one, but am running into trouble finding an easy answer through google (damn the AI results!).

My mother-in-law has been in an awful, protracted divorce for years now and her lawyer is seeking cost awards due to her ex-husband's actions. There is already a judgement that is pretty damning for him, he is trying to appeal (representing himself because he's broke) but it is hopefully doomed to fail. He rebuffed a very generous settlement years ago at the beginning of proceedings and turned a simple middle-class divorce into a quagmire. My question assumes that some kind of cost award is granted (seeking coverage of her legal fees and some other things).

If she is awarded costs, there is almost no chance that he (the unsuccessful party) will have the money to pay as he is deeply in debt already, and even if he does have the funds, he will surely drag his feet or outright refuse to comply (as he has done throughout the proceeding, ignoring court orders). Is there any way to have the costs be paid directly to the lawyer rather than the successful party? The thinking being here that the legal firm can chase him down directly rather than my MIL having to continue to deal with her abusive ex for years (with the added bonus of her being able to keep what she gets out of the house sale etc instead of handing it over for her legal fees immediately). I thought I found an answer while googling, but the term Payment into lawyer seems to show up in AI search results, but not the sources for those results. Maybe it's an AI hallucination.

The other thing I see that looks like it *IS* real, is payment into court. How does this work? Will the court take care of recouping the cost awards from him and disburse them as they are able? This likely means that my MIL will still owe her lawyer the fees right away and have to wait for reimbursement, but at least it will remove some mental strain, even if she winds up with nothing more than half his pension at the end.

As an aside, no wonder people hate lawyers! lol. It's insane that what should be a simple divorce can take years of someone's life and more money than they've ever had. The whole system is a racket, how is it not better regulated/structured/overseen/backstopped? He has absolutely weaponized the legal system against his wife to continue the abuse. If someone doesn't give a shit about their own time and money they can do whatever they want in a divorce it seems.

Sorry for the rant. I've been at arm's length to this thing but it still gets my blood boiling.