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It does not take 15 years to exhaust the administrative appeal option. Final PEB/PDA determination is usually sufficient. In fact going to the ABCMR first will often limits your options. Jason Perry of pebforum.com can provide a deeper explanation. I am not saying one should go to court instead of trying other administrative appeal options. But you need to be aware of the pros and cons before you chose the course of action best suited for your circumstances. Again, such a lawsuit would be based on an improper separation or an incorrect disability determination. These lawsuits must be filed within 6 years of separation.

The MEB is required to cover all medical conditions with full clinical data to include the data from the applicable VA exam worksheets. Once completed, you can appeal these findings and/or request an impartial medical review. Once completed, the MEB goes to the PEB.

The PEB will assess the conditions for fitness and compensability. If they find you unfit they will send your file to the VA for rating. The VA will rate all conditions regardless if the PEB found them to be unfitting or not. The PEB then applies the VA rating of the conditions they deemed unfitting and that become your DoD disability rating. If the DoD rating is 30% or more, you become a disability retiree. Less than 30%, you are separated with separation pay with is subject to offset by VA compensation for the same condition. There are multiple appeal options during the PEB process. All ratings are required to be based on the VA schedule for rating Disabilities.

If your MEB/PEB did not following law and regulation to a point beyond a harmless error, that would be the issue to take to court and/or further administrative appeal options. Typical violations include failure to cover all medical conditions properly in the MEB, PEBs arbitrarily selecting conditions as unfitting, failing to rate conditions that contributes to overall unfitness, erroneous combat related/combat zone determinations, failure to properly apply presumption of service connection and service aggravation rules, and finding a member fit and then administratively separating them or denying them reenlistment based on the condition the PEB deemed fitting.

Ironically, a 0% rating can lead to more DoD/VA benefits than a 10% or 20% rating.  So be careful disputing a DoD 0% rating if you can't make a solid argumet it should be 30% or more. 

Mike