You'd think but there are issues like this today and it's difficult to prove depending on the circumstances (at least prove to the point where they can get in trouble with the bar).
Anecdotally when my father was going through his divorce his lawyer told him not to take the settlement with his now ex-wife and his lawyer promised she could get him better terms and an expedited divorce and would only need to go to one court appearance.
Two additional retainers later and she told my father he had to settle for what was offered at the court house which was a worse settlement and that she event told him she didn't feel comfortable negotiating beyond what was offered because it was "a great deal". I have a hard time believing she had my father's best interests in mind and just kept the case going for a bit longer.
I would expect a system like this would exacerbate this type of behavior.
I know of one long running case concerning pensions (British Telecom Section A) that was dragged out for well over a decade - as the longer it went on more pensioners would have died so reducing the cost.
Delaying vs being thorough would be incredibly tough to prove.
To a degree this happens already with large vs small company law suits, where the larger company maintains proceeding in some form til the other small business runs out of cash or gives up.
Anecdotally when my father was going through his divorce his lawyer told him not to take the settlement with his now ex-wife and his lawyer promised she could get him better terms and an expedited divorce and would only need to go to one court appearance.
Two additional retainers later and she told my father he had to settle for what was offered at the court house which was a worse settlement and that she event told him she didn't feel comfortable negotiating beyond what was offered because it was "a great deal". I have a hard time believing she had my father's best interests in mind and just kept the case going for a bit longer.
I would expect a system like this would exacerbate this type of behavior.