statute of liminations

IRS has filed a law suit in federal tax court against me. i appealed and the IRS has decided to dismiss the law suit. there is additional money owed me by the IRS for the years, 95 & 97. these were the years the law suit was filed for. the IRS is telling me that the statute of liminations has run out and I can not collect. my question is, if they filed a law suit in the year 2000 do I have three years to collect from that date?

Hydrill

Usually, the statute of limitations is SUSPENDED during the time a suit is in process. But the running of the period of limitations is not started fresh after the suit is concluded; it starts to run from the time it had run to before the suit. For example, if there is one year left on the statute when the suit is brought, there will be one year left after the suit is concluded.