I'm not a lawyer, either, but I'll tell you what I've heard -

Suing might not accomplish much. Assuming you win the case, you will walk out of court with only a piece of paper saying you sued him and won. That by itself doesn't get you any money, but it gives you the right to take certain further actions against him. For example, if he is employed, you can garnishee his wages. (This means his employer has to hand over part of his wages to you.) If anyone owes him money for any reason, you can force them to pay you instead of him. (This can be very useful if he is self-employed or owns a business. Almost every business has customers who owe them money.) You might be able to seize some of his property (such as his car) and sell it. If he has a bank account, you can force the bank to pay the balance to you.

Just knowing that you CAN do these things MIGHT make him decide to pay up. That's the best possible outcome.

If he doesn't have any of these assets, you're out of luck. If he does have them, it's up to you to find out about them. You have to find out the names and addresses of his employer, his bank, the people who owe him money, and so on. Then you would have to draw up the paperwork to get these things accomplished. You can probably learn how to do these things yourself, but unless you enjoy it, it's probably not worth it.

You'd probably be better off hiring a collection agency to do these things for you, but then they get to keep a certain percentage of what they collect. It wouldn't hurt to call one right now, even before you decide whether to go to court, to find out what they can do and what their terms are. Look in your yellow pages under "Collection Agencies." (I just did, and I see ads that say "Call for a free phone consultation" and "We don't get paid until you get paid.")