Don't take this as legal advice, but there is such a thing as mitigating circumstances. Your suggested approach leaves a gaping security hole open for a fairly long time before anything happens. Also, simply logging in once and doing nothing to verify a new security breach is vary different then browsing info. It's like noticing a door was left slightly open yelling your doors open and if nobody answers and closing but not locking it. Technically you broke the law, but a prosecutor is unlikely to win a case so they will probably just drop it.
PS: Under the right circumstances you could still be sued though. Edit: You can also be sued for just about anything so IMO it's somewhat moot.
PS: Under the right circumstances you could still be sued though. Edit: You can also be sued for just about anything so IMO it's somewhat moot.