large lawsuit in alabama

Statutes of limitations provide deadlines for when you have to file a lawsuit; once the lawsuit is started, it can be litigated for as long as it takes without implicating the statute of limitations.  If, as you say, your brother commenced his lawsuit more than 3 years ago, the statute of limitations would only help you if his claim was already too old back then.  Moreover, if the case has been going on for more than 3 years, you may no longer be able to assert a limitations defense if you have not already done so. I don't know what the statute of limitations is for fraud in Alabama, but generally fraud limitations periods only start to run from when the person claiming he was defrauded discovered, or with reasonable diligence should have discovered, the fraud.  Thus, for example, if the fraud was committed in 1980, but your brother did not and could not have discovered the fraud unil 2000, his limitations period for asserting his fraud claim would not begin to run until 2000.  Fraud limitations periods vary from state to state, but generally can be anywhere from 2 to 6 years.