How much are you willing to spend to pursue justice and fairness?

People get a small amount stolen from them by someone they know. They try to get it back, and the person keeps on disappearing.

How much are you willing to go after them in order to get them to court, get a judgment, and enforce the judgment? Say $500 had been taken from you because someone refused to pay what they owed you. Would you fight and fight until you exhausted all avenues of redress, no matter how much it cost? Or would you fight a little and then give up before you wasted any more of your time on the project? I.e., do you know when to cut your losses?

Explain why you think justice and fairness is worth going to the mat for on this? Or why would you give up? How would you decide when to drop it as not worth any more of your time?